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The Liberal government is introducing stopgap measures for the current round of collective bargaining with Canada’s public servants that will get around controversial rules of Tory-era legislation until that law is repealed.

Treasury Board President Scott Brison told the 18 unions in a recent letter that he agreed to the interim measures as a way to speed up the negotiations, which have been dragging on for several years.

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“These interim measures are meant to support a timely resolution of this round of bargaining,” Brison said in the letter. “While the measures must be permissible under the current legislation, they are meant to reflect, to the extent possible, the spirit of the pre-Bill C-4 regime.”

“The government … is committed to restoring fair and balanced labour laws that recognize the important role of unions in protecting the rights of workers.”

Last month, Brison promised the Liberals would unwind the Tory-era legislation that rewrote rules for collective bargaining that had been in place for nearly 50 years. Those changes were a major blow to the unions bargaining clout and their right to strike. The unions quickly filed constitutional challenges in court to overturn them.