A large number of Manitoba government workers have voted against a contract offer that temporarily froze wages but also guaranteed no layoffs over the life of the deal.

More than half of about 13,000 members of the Manitoba Government Employees Union eligible to vote on the proposed contract with the province rejected it, said MGEU president Lois Wales on Sunday.

The deal would have frozen wages for the first two years of the contract's four-year duration, but it also contained a no-layoff clause. In the final two years, employees would have received raises of 2.75 per cent each year.

As Manitoba contends with a deficit, the province had signalled wage freezes would be sought as it seeks to get back into the black by 2014. Nurses voted recently to accept a new contract that included a wage freeze.

But the freeze wasn't the only concern expressed by the union members, Wales said.

"There [have] been lots of positions that have been not filled. People have been working more than one position — some of them didn't feel valued. It was kind of all different kinds of reasons, I guess," Wales said.

The two sides could be back at the bargaining table as early as this week, she added.