Are You Allowed To Vote Online For Your Enterprise Agreement?

When it comes to negotiating an enterprise agreement and the availability of technology, these questions frequently come to mind: Can the vote be conducted online rather than a physical ballot? Is this permissible under the Fair Work Act 2009? Or is it the same as a parliamentary election where voting can’t be conducted by electronic means?

The answer is YES.

The FairWork Act s18s(3) specifically provides that the employers may request their employees to approve an enterprise agreement through online voting.

The relevant section of the FairWork Act reads as follows:

Employers may request employees to approve a proposed enterprise agreement

(1) An employer that will be covered by a proposed enterprise agreement may request the employees employed at the time who will be covered by the agreement to approve the agreement by voting for it;

(2) The request must not be made until at least 21 days after the day on which the last notice under subsection 173(1) (which deals with giving notice of employee representational rights) in relation to the agreement is given;

(3) Without limiting subsection (1), the employer may request that the employees vote by ballot or by an electronic method.

The most important thing is to take all means possible to ensure employees have access to the written text of the agreement and any material incorporated by reference in the agreement. Employees must have access to this for the full 7 to 8 days preceding the vote.

Vero Voting can assist by allowing enterprise agreement to be hosted online securely. Wherein employees can log in and access all the relevant documents from anywhere in the world.

Read the step-by-step voting process to help your employees understand the procedure.

To learn more about our voting technology, feel free to shoot us an email at info@verovoting.com.au