Wellington, March 17 NZPA - The need to lift productivity in the recession will be discussed at a conference in Wellington tomorrow hosted by the Council of Trade Unions.

Prime Minister John Key will speak at the conference, along with CTU president Helen Kelly and Business NZ's manager for employment relations policy Paul Mackay.

There will also be "shop floor" speakers representing the manufacturing, retail and public service sectors.

The CTU said today the aim was to evaluate the three-year education project on productivity it has been running "and to look to the future as we focus on lifting productivity to benefit workers in the context of a deepening recession".