Since 2017, many Manitoba public servants have been working with expired contracts and frozen wages, not because of the pandemic but because of a Pallister government law that violated workers’ rights to collective bargaining.
These workers deserve to have their rights respected.
On June 12, the Court of Queen’s Bench ruled that the Public Services Sustainability Act violates the right to collective bargaining and is unconstitutional.
This is a major victory for the rights of working people and it means that over 120,000 public-sector workers should be able to freely and fairly bargain with their employers. This includes our members in the Manitoba Association of Government Engineers Group.
"The ruling clearly shows that the Pallister government’s law was heavy-handed and a violation of workers' rights to collective bargaining,” said PIPSC President, Debi Daviau. “This decision should be a warning to any government that plans to resort to legislation to impose wage restraints on their employees and to restrict their collective bargaining rights."
PIPSC was a partner in this case against the Public Services Sustainability Act launched by the Manitoba Federation of Labour.