QUEBEC - There were mass resignations Monday from the senior ranks of Quebec's Crown prosecutors in an increasingly nasty labour dispute pitting the provincial government against its own lawyers.

More than half of the province's top-level prosecutors -- at least 28 in all -- sent resignation letters but, in a statement late Monday, the government said it would not accept them.

Four senior crowns and 24 assistant senior lawyers who run the Crown prosecutors' units sought to relinquish their management positions in a display of solidarity with striking employees.

The resignation letters came after the Quebec government tabled back-to-work legislation forcing the province's lawyers to end their strike and return to courtrooms on Tuesday afternoon.

All government lawyers were told they would get a six-per-cent salary increase over five years under the legislation tabled Monday. Lawyers had demanded a far bigger pay increase to bring their salaries to a level comparable to those of counterparts elsewhere in Canada.

In a gesture of support, senior managers immediately announced plans to quit their positions and asked to be reassigned back to regular Crown jobs, leaving the majority of offices without a supervisor.

The union representing prosecutors predicted that the emergency legislation would have a dire impact on morale.

"The prosecutors will go back to work and will continue to give maximum effort with what little resources they have," said Christian Leblanc, president of the prosecutors' association, told a news conference.

"But now that they're imposing back-to-work legislation against the Crowns for the second time in five years, will the Crowns continue to prop up a legal system that's deficient? One that's propped up by their volunteering their personal time?

"I don't think so."

The bill provides for fines of between $100 and $500 a day for individuals who flout the legislation, while unions could be hit with fines of up to $125,000 a day.

In what was billed as a Canadian first, some 1,500 lawyers and prosecutors, represented by separate unions, walked off the job at the same time on Feb. 8 to protest their salaries and working conditions.

They say they are paid about 40 per cent less than their counterparts across the country. They also want more lawyers hired to help clear the backlogs plaguing the province's justice system, delays that are the worst in the country.

Treasury Board President Michelle Courchesne said she was willing to hire an additional 80 Crown prosecutors, 40 researchers and 25 lawyers to help alleviate the workload.

She called the government's offer reasonable and said it wasn't fair to compare salaries between provinces, rejecting the argument that Quebec prosecutors are 40-per-cent underpaid.

"There's a difference in the cost of living between us and Ontario or other Canadian provinces," Courchesne said.

"We have social programs here, when we consider ($7-a-day) daycare, when we think of parental leave, we think of lower tuition fees, of prescription drug plans."

Premier Jean Charest insisted that his government made every possible effort to reach a settlement with the strikers.

"We tabled a serious offer, one that was credible and was geared toward improving the working conditions of the prosecutors," Charest said.

That's not how the Crown attorneys saw things.

"The prosecutors are proud of the battle they have waged because they waged it for the right reasons," Leblanc said.

"They are also ashamed at being employees of this government. The situation will be very difficult for prosecutors, and many are talking about quitting."

Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois also weighed in, accusing the government of undermining the public's trust in the justice system.

"At a time when we need our Crown prosecutors more than ever, the government is imposing a special law without ever having negotiated in good faith," Marois said in the legislature.

Among the resignations was one prominent Crown prosecutor asked to be stripped of his functions because of the lack of available resources.

Claude Chartrand said he no longer wanted to serve as chief prosecutor for the unit that fights organized crime. He wrote in a letter that organized crime prosecutions were better left to the federal prosecution service.

His unit is in charge of prosecuting megatrials including a major one currently before the courts involving 156 Hells Angels and their associates arrested in Quebec in 2009.