The European Public Limited-Liability Company (Employee Involvement) (Great Britain) Regulations 2009

Conduct of the ballot

11.—(1) The management must—

(a) ensure that a ballot supervisor appointed under regulation 10(3)(e) carries out the functions conferred or imposed on the ballot supervisor under this regulation;

(b) ensure that there is no interference from the management with the ballot supervisor’s carrying out of those functions;

(c) comply with all reasonable requests made by a ballot supervisor for the purposes of, or in connection with, the carrying out of those functions.

(2) A ballot supervisor’s appointment must require that the ballot supervisor—

(a) supervises the conduct of the ballot, or the separate ballots, that the ballot supervisor is being appointed to supervise, in accordance with the arrangements for the ballot of UK employees published by the management under regulation 10(3)(g) or, where appropriate, in accordance with the arrangements as required to be modified by an order made as a result of a complaint presented under regulation 10(4);

(b) does not conduct the ballot or any of the separate ballots before the management has satisfied the requirement specified in regulation 10(3)(g) and—

(i) where no complaint has been presented under regulation 10(4), before the expiry of a period of 21 days beginning on the date on which the management published its arrangements under regulation 10(3)(g), or

(ii) where a complaint has been presented under regulation 10(4), before the complaint has been determined and, where appropriate, the arrangements have been modified as required by an order made as a result of that complaint;

(c) conducts the ballot, or each separate ballot, so as to secure that—

(i) so far as reasonably practicable, those entitled to vote are given the opportunity to vote,

(ii) so far as reasonably practicable, those entitled to stand as candidates are given the opportunity to stand,

(iii) so far as reasonably practicable, those voting are able to do so in secret, and

(iv) the votes given in the ballot are fairly and accurately counted.

(3) As soon as reasonably practicable after the holding of the ballot, the ballot supervisor must publish the results of the ballot in such manner as to make them available to the management and, so far as reasonably practicable, to the UK employees entitled to vote in the ballot and the persons who stood as candidates.

(4) If a ballot supervisor considers (whether on the basis of representations made to the ballot supervisor by another person or otherwise)—

(a) that any of the requirements referred to in paragraph (2) was not satisfied, with the result that the outcome of the ballot would have been different, or

(b) that there was interference with the carrying out of the ballot supervisor’s functions, or a failure by the management to comply with all reasonable requests made by the ballot supervisor, with the result that the ballot supervisor was unable to form a proper judgement as to whether each of the requirements referred to in paragraph (2) was satisfied in the ballot,

the ballot supervisor must publish a report (“an ineffective ballot report”).

(5) Where a ballot supervisor publishes an ineffective ballot report, the report must be published within a period of one month commencing on the date on which the ballot supervisor publishes the results of the ballot under paragraph (3).

(6) A ballot supervisor must publish an ineffective ballot report in such manner as to make it available to the management and, so far as reasonably practicable, to the UK employees entitled to vote in the ballot and the persons who stood as candidates in the ballot.

(7) Where a ballot supervisor publishes an ineffective ballot report, then—

(a) if there has been a single ballot, or if an ineffective ballot report has been published in respect of every separate ballot, the outcome of the ballot or ballots has no effect and the management is again under the obligation in regulation 10(2);

(b) if there have been separate ballots and sub-paragraph (a) does not apply—

(i) the management must arrange for the separate ballot or ballots in respect of which an ineffective ballot report was published to be re-held in accordance with regulation 10 and this regulation, and

(ii) no such ballot has effect until it has been re-held and no ineffective ballot report has been published in respect of it.

(8) All costs relating to the holding of a ballot, including payments made to a ballot supervisor for supervising the conduct of the ballot, must be borne by the management (whether or not an ineffective ballot report has been published).