Over the last several weeks, the Partnership to Defend Public Services (comprised of Manitoba’s public sector unions and led by the Manitoba Federation of Labour) has been working to finalize arguments for the Court of Appeal hearing, which was held today.

Last June, the Court of Queen’s Bench ruled in the PDPS' favour that the Bill 28 wage freeze legislation was a violation of members’ rights to free and fair collective bargaining. However, instead of accepting the result, the government appealed the decision, and chose to waste even more time and taxpayer dollars by further drawing out this unconstitutional and disrespectful approach to negotiations with public sector employees.

Today was the next step in that process, as the Court heard from both sides in the Appeal hearing. The PDPS legal counsel made the case, once again, that the Public Services Sustainability Act (Bill 28) is unconstitutional, as it denies public sector workers of their Charter rights to sit down and negotiate fair wage increases with their employer.
 
Now that the Appeal has been heard, we await the Court’s decision, which would typically be delivered within six months of a hearing.
 
When the decision has been handed down, the MGEU will update its members. Please stay tuned...

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