The Manitoba Nurses' Union has filed unfair labour practice charges with the Manitoba Labour Board over the imposition of French language requirements at a Winnipeg hospital.

Some nurses who work at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg's French quarter have been told they will have to speak French to work in certain areas, Maureen Hancharyk, president of the nurses union, said Tuesday.

Hancharyk said the language qualifications will affect nurses who have years of experience and are otherwise qualified.

"You can't, after all these years, just all of a sudden impose a certain qualification on a posting without sitting down with the union," she said.

"We're not opposed to French language. We're not opposed to French culture. We are willing to negotiate. They've been unwilling to do so."

The hospital is not offering on-site French classes for nurses who are willing to learn the language, she added.

Dr. Michel Tetreault, president and CEO of St. Boniface Hospital, said the hospital hasn't yet started using the French-language qualification, but he hoped they would begin shortly.

"We've been working on this for about 15 years now. It's a mandate that we have, and haven't been able to achieve our objectives in terms of an active offer of French," he said.

Tetreault stressed that no nurses would lose their jobs over the new qualification.

"I want to specify that this is for new positions, so no one who is presently in a position will be losing a job over this," he said.

Neither the union nor the hospital would say exactly how many positions could be affected by the requirement. The union described the number as "significant," while the hospital called it a "small number."

Tetreault said he feels the hospital is working within its collective bargaining agreement with the union in implementing the language requirement.