WINNIPEG - 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.
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