Oct 30, Colombo: The trade union of Sri Lankan nurses, Government Nursing Officers' Association (GNOA) will stage a protest Tuesday outside the government hospitals island wide to win several demands.

The major demonstration is to be held outside the Colombo National Hospital at 11:00 am.

The nurses' union demands among others, a five-day work week, grade promotions and increase in the risk and travel allowances for nurses.

The secretary of the union Saman Rathnapriya said the union also demands to reinstate the suspended grade promotions for last year and this year.

Rathnapriya said that they held discussions on their demands with the Health Ministry last Friday and some were granted solutions.

He said the discussions focused on a Gazette notification, issued early this month, which said that provincial councils are empowered to recruit 75 percent of the nursing staff required.

Rathnapriya said that according to the Gazette notification nurses had to serve in their first appointments in provincial hospitals for ten years and they are banned from private practice.

Through discussions, the Ministry has agreed to bring down the number of years to five during which they should serve under the Provincial Councils and to annul the ban against private practice for nurses.

The Ministry has also agreed to settle the nursing graduate issue, Rathnapriya said although some demands involving the increases in overtime, travel and risk allowances have to be settled by the Treasury.