Multiple Manitoba unions are mounting a legal challenge to a piece of provincial legislation that blocks pay increases for public workers.
The unions headed to court Tuesday to change or nullify the Public Services Sustainability Act, also known as Bill 28, which union leaders have accused of including a wage freeze for public sector employees.
CUPE, the Manitoba Teachers’ Society and the Manitoba Nurses Union are among over a dozen unions that have come out against the bill.
Multiple locals of the United Steel Workers and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, including the locals that represent Flin Flon, have also joined the challenge.
According to the Manitoba Federation of Labour (MFL), the bill undermines the collective bargaining rights for unions representing public sector workers.
“It is both unfair and unconstitutional, and that’s why Manitoba’s unions are challenging the Pallister government in court,” reads a statement.
While the bill was initially passed in spring 2017, it has not yet been proclaimed. A court challenge was filed by the MFL in July 2017, not long after the bill was passed.
The union partnership is aiming for the court to review the constitutional validity of the bill and to impose an injunction on having the law proclaimed.
Contained in section 12(1) of the bill is a note that wages for public sector workers, including teachers, healthcare workers, school divisions and others, cannot increase for a period of two years and will only see small increases over the two years after that.
After the two year period ends, wages will only be allowed to increase by .75 per cent in the first year, followed by a limit of one per cent in the year after that.
In addition, the bill dictates that pay rates cannot be restructured by any collective agreement or arbitral decision during the four-year period.
Members of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society held a protest rally at the Manitoba Legislature on May 25 to protest the bill and recent provincial education funding changes. The protestors said limited public sector employee pay, along with cuts to more than half of Manitoba school divisions, could result in lower quality for Manitoba education.
Multiple representatives of the Flin Flon chapter of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society were at the rally, already in Winnipeg for the group’s annual general meeting.
Another rally is scheduled to take place in Thompson on June 9.
