The state government in association with International Labour Organisation (ILO) will organize a two-day long national conference on labour in the city from September 20. This was informed by state labour minister Prafulla Mallick at a press meet here .

• union minister of state for labour and employment Bandaru Dattatreya, labour ministers and chairpersons of labour welfare boards of 29 states will attend the conference. Odisha is organizing such an event for the first time.
• Subash Singh, chairman of Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, said they will discuss several issues related to organized and unorganized labourers of the country in four sessions of the conference.

•  Singh said the participants will discuss about child labour, migrant and bonded labour issues during the discussions in the conference. They will also discuss about how to manage the labour welfare boards in a better and effective way by generating more cess.

• the conference bears a lot of significance for the labourers and trade unions, who had staged dawn-to-dusk Bharat Bandh on September 2 protesting Centre’s ‘anti-labour policy’ and government’s indifferent attitude towards the workers. Minimum wage fixation of Rs 15,000, social security, proper implementation of labour laws will get a place in the deliberations of participants, he added.

•  Building and construction workers board of Odisha has registered 16.43 lakh people and spent Rs 175 crore to provide facilities to five lakh labourers under different schemes of the government.