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Fair Work Commission Rules 2024
76Application for a protected action ballot order
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76 Application for a protected action ballot order
(1) An application under section 437 of the Act for a protected action ballot order must be accompanied by:
(a) a draft order in the terms sought by the applicant or applicants; and
(b) for each employer of the employees who are to be balloted—a separate declaration by the applicant, or separate declarations by each applicant, setting out the basis on which the FWC can be satisfied that the requirements of section 437 and paragraph 443(1)(b) of the Act have been met in relation to that employer; and
(c) if the application names a person to be the protected action ballot agent for the protected action ballot and the person is not an eligible protected action ballot agent—a declaration by the person in relation to whether the person is a fit and proper person to conduct the ballot.
Note 1: The application and the declarations must be in the approved form: see rule 9.
Note 2: For example, if an application is jointly made by 2 applicants and there are 5 employers of the employees who are to be balloted, each applicant is required to make 5 declarations under paragraph (b) (a separate one for each employer).
(b) if the applicant is, or the applicants are, unable to lodge electronically—in hard copy form.
(3) The applicant or applicants must serve a copy of the draft order with the application.
Note: For service of the application, see rules 21 and 22. Service is the procedure for complying with the requirement in section 440 of the Act to give copies of the application within 24 hours after making the application.
Service on the Australian Electoral Commission
(4) The application and the copy of the draft order may be served on the Australian Electoral Commission by emailing the document to the email address secret.ballots@aec.gov.au.
(5) The person serving the documents on the Australian Electoral Commission must:
(i) retain the email as a “sent item”, showing the email address to which the email was sent and the date and time that it was sent; or
(ii) retain a “delivered” statement or a “read receipt” showing the email address to which the email was sent and the date and time that it was delivered or read; and
(b) produce the retained document if required by the FWC.