WINNIPEG – Manitoba’s public sector unions are taking the Manitoba government to court over wage freezes.

In a news release the group representing some 110,000 union employees said its seeking a court injunction against the Public Services Sustainability Act.

The wage-freeze bill was introduced in March. It proposes that as each public-sector collective agreement expires, a two-year wage freeze be brought in, followed by increases of 0.75 per cent and one per cent in the third and fourth years.

READ: Province to introduce bills that may freeze public-sector wages

Manitoba Federation of Labour President Kevin Rebeck said in a statement that they want to prevent the law from being proclaimed until after a court decision.

“The Pallister government has passed a new law that fundamentally undermines collective bargaining rights,” Rebeck said. “It’s unfair and it’s unconstitutional.”

The province said the act was part of its bigger plan to chip away at its nearly billion-dollar deficit.