Manitoba court rejects demand from unions for injunction against wage freeze

Manitoba’s public-sector unions have lost a bid for a temporary court injunction against a provincial government bill that would freeze their wages.

A Court of Queen’s Bench justice has rejected the request to halt the proposed law until a constitutional challenge can be heard at a later date.

Justice James Edmond has ruled the wage freeze does not meet the test of an obvious Charter of Rights and Freedoms violation that would warrant an immediate injunction.

More than a dozen unions – representing 110,000 government workers, nurses, teachers and others across the public sector – argue that the government’s plan undermines collective bargaining rights.

The government has said it is within its authority to freeze wages as part of its plan to reduce the deficit.

The bill outlining the wage freeze was passed by the legislature more than a year ago, but the government has not yet declared it to be in effect.

Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour, has said the bill has already affected contract talks, because government and public-agency negotiators are using it as a guideline.

The legislation would impose a two-year wage freeze across the public sector as each collective agreement expired. That would be followed by a 0.75 per cent pay increase in the third year and one per cent in the fourth.

The unions filed a statement of claim last year that asked Court of Queen’s Bench for an injunction against the bill and, later, a declaration that the wage freeze is unconstitutional.

A date for the latter hearing has not yet been set.