The Ministry of Health has formed a committee to address demands of the agitating nurses.

The MoH on Tuesday formed a committee under Dr Binod Man Shrestha, chief specialist at the ministry, with Dr Guna Raj Lohani and Mahendra Shrestha, among others, as members.

Dr Lohani said they had initiated talks with the agitating nurses. “We have held talks with them about the demands and ways to address them. However, there has not been any agreement to stop the protest,” he said. The meeting will continue on Thursday.

The committee was formed after nurses across the country started boycotting the services to end “labour abuse” against them.

The protest, which started off with a demand to reinstate the nurses fired from the Human Organ Transplant Centre (HOTC), has snowballed into an agitation against the unequal payment and sheer labour abuse that they face in health facilities. Under the leadership of Nepal Nursing Association (NNA), nurses have been boycotting services for three hours each day across the country putting forth an 11-point demand.

Their demands include ending the practice of volunteerism, adjusting work hours and uniform salary of the nurses, among others.

The NNA has, however, warned that they would step up their protest programmes including halting work in hospital and other health facilities if their demands are not met. On Wednesday, nurses in hospitals across the country boycotted their services for over an hour.