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Nurses give Govt. 4 days to reconsider call to work 

02 Aug 2021

  • Threatens islandwide strike action again
By Dinitha Rathnayake The Government Nursing Officers’ Association (GNOA) has said it objects to the call for all public employees to report for regular service under health guidelines from today (2). Speaking to The Morning yesterday (1), GNOA President Saman Rathnapriya said that it is unsafe to call on all employees at this time, due to the worsening pandemic situation. “How can the Government assure the safety of health staff and pregnant mothers? There should be a proper process to this,” he charged. The Government recently decided to call all public servants for regular services from today, in adherence to health guidelines. According to the President's Media Division (PMD), Secretary to the President Dr. P.B. Jayasundera has informed this to the Secretary of the Public Services, Provincial Councils, and Local Government J.J. Ratnasiri, and all circulars issued limiting the workforce and encouraging the public servants to work from home have been cancelled. According to Rathnapriya, the GNOA would give the authorities four days, until 4 August, to make a decision regarding health sector staff, after which it is prepared to commence trade union action. “We don’t accept this circular, and we ask the authorities to take the necessary steps; otherwise no one will stop us from taking action,” he warned. Meanwhile, the GNOA is scheduled to make a final decision today regarding the protest campaigns at all hospitals islandwide, over the health authorities’ non-gazetting of the promotions to nursing officers. Rathnapriya said that the string of protests staged in this regard on 28 July was successful. “The protest campaign will be conducted next week if the authorities fail to publish the gazette notification pertaining to the promotions of nursing officers,” Rathnapriya added. According to Rathnapriya, the protests will be conducted at around 100 main hospitals islandwide. The nursing trade unions previously conducted strike action on 1 and 2 July of this year, following the failure of discussions with the Government and the Health Ministry to resolve nine key issues related to the nursing service. Following the strike action, a Cabinet paper was submitted with regard to promotions in the nursing service, which was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, and accordingly, was forwarded to the Public Administration and Management Ministry/Public Services Ministry and the Public Service Commission. Rathnapriya further added that the circulars pertaining to the respective Cabinet paper are yet to be published, and that the Association is awaiting the results.  


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