PUBLIC service and teaching unions in the US state of Wisconsin have scored a major legal victory with a ruling that restores collective bargaining rights that they lost under a 2011 state law, which sparked weeks of protests.

That legislation, known as Act 10, effectively ended the ability of most public employees to bargain over wage increases and other issues and forced them to pay more for health insurance and retirement benefits.

Under the ruling by Dane County Circuit Judge Jacob Frost, all public-sector workers who lost their collective bargaining power will have it restored to what was in place before 2011.