Protected Action Ballots and Protected Industrial Action Under the Fair Work Act : The Impact of Ballot Procedures on Enterprise Bargaining Processes – Methodological Approach

Federal workplace relations in Australia and requirements relating to the use of industrial action within the context of collective bargaining are governed by the Fair Work Act 2009 (CTH) (FW Act). Protected industrial action by employees and their bargaining representatives is restricted to support for negotiations for a single-enterprise agreement, subject to the Fair Work Commission authorising an independent secret ballot of employees to approve the taking of protected industrial action through a protected action ballot order and subsequent approval of the proposed action in the ballot. While there is a relatively large body of industrial relations research exploring both the frequency, and the impact of strike action, there is significantly less research on the impact of the regulation of strike action on the decision-making processes of workers and their trade unions. In order to address this gap in the literature, we designed a study to provide the first Australian empirical account of the protected industrial action ballot order process and analyse its effect on enterprise bargaining behaviour. In this paper, we present out methodological statement for the Project - Protected Action Ballots and Protected Industrial Action under the Fair Work Act: The Impact of Ballot Procedures on Enterprise Bargaining Processes