Commentary on provisions of Act Section 5: Information to be included on voting paper
Section 229(2) of the 1992 Act sets out the information which a union must include on the ballot paper. It currently requires a trade union to ask its members on the ballot paper which type of industrial action they want to take part in, but this only need to be expressed in terms of whether this is strike action or action short of a strike. Only the type of action that a majority of members vote for will then be protected and immune from legal action by the employers or others.
	This section makes changes to the information that must be included in a ballot paper.
	Subsection (2B) requires a trade union to state in the ballot paper a summary of the issues that are in dispute between the employer and trade union and that have resulted in the ballot being called.
	The summary that the trade union should supply should be sufficient to enable the union member who is voting to understand what issues remain unresolved.
	Subsections (2C) and (2D) require a trade union to specify in the ballot paper the type or types of industrial action that amount to action short of a strike and to provide an indication of the time period during which it is expected that those specific types of action are to take place. This is to enable a member to make an informed decision about whether or not to support the proposed action when deciding how to vote. For example: work to rule October 2016; overtime ban November 2016; and strike action late December 2016. The clause also provides a trade union with the flexibility to decide whether the type or types of industrial action are best expressed as part of the question in the ballot paper or set out elsewhere on the ballot paper.
	This section will only apply to ballots where ballot papers are sent to members on or after the day that this section comes into effect.