The Fair Work Commission accepted the union’s proposal for a protected action ballot on Thursday and members will start receiving their ballots in the next week to vote on whether it begins.

ASU organiser Emma Bagg said if workers were locked out, she believed it would be the first occurrence at a Victorian council.

“They did go around to all the workers (on Friday) and held meetings and made threats to say ‘we could lock people out like Carter Holt Harvey, that’s at the extreme end, or we could not pay people if they participate in protected industrial action’,” she said.

“It’s a bit extreme to be going around and bully-boying people into that.”

The sticking point of a new enterprise agreement was the removal of a section of the dispute resolution clause, which allowed workers to challenge written warnings or disciplinary action.

“It stops them being able to dispute any harsh or unjust warnings that they may receive,” Ms Bagg said.

“That’s a serious concern to our members.

“I’ve had to take council to Fair Work a number of times in the last two years over disciplinary matters.”

Some of the proposed 60 industrial actions put to the FWC included bans on street and toilet cleaning and picking up garbage, bans on mowing selected reserves, bans on issuing infringement notices, and stop work action of up to 24 hours.

Ms Bagg would only say that a “significant amount” of the council’s 170 employees were union members and while she was 100 per cent confident the vote would get over the line, strike action was “a little bit away”.

“It will have a big impact on council if it goes ahead,” she said. “Through all of this we’re still willing to work with council on a resolution and we hope members don’t have to take industrial action, but we’re getting to a point where we’re seriously concerned.”