Renew lapsed memberships, construction workers tell welfare board

Coimbatore: Construction workers affiliated to AITUC staged a protest in front of the labour department office in the city on Wednesday, demanding the Construction Workers’ Welfare Board to renew the lapsed memberships.
According to them, the labour department had on March 10 said in a meeting with labour unions that 31.17 lakh construction workers were registered with the welfare board.However, when chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced special assistance for unorganized labourers after the lockdown, the state had said only 12.13 lakh construction workers had registered with the welfare board. N Selvaraj, general secretary, Tamil Nadu AITUC Construction Workers’ Union, said, “The state said 19 lakh workers had not renewed the membership. As per the welfare board rules, officials hadn’t informed the workers to renew the membership. Because of this, they won’t get the special assistance.” TNN