Employees at Toyota Australia’s Altona plant have refused a new workplace agreement from the car manufacturer in a secret ballot.

Toyota Australia today announced that its employees had not endorsed the company’s offer, which would give staff an 11 per cent pay rise over 39 months.

Toyota Australia Executive Director Manufacturing Chris Harrod said: “We will continue to work with our employees to determine the reasons for the unsuccessful vote.

“We’re keen to find a way to reach an agreement with our employees and the unions. We acknowledge that we need to better understand what the specific concerns are for our employees.”

Toyota Australia undertook a voting process under the terms of the Fair Work Act which enables the company to conduct a secret ballot to seek endorsement by the majority of voting employees. More than 3000 employees had participated in the vote.

The Workplace Agreement vote took place nationally between Thursday, 6 October and Sunday 9 October 2011. The vote was carried out using an electronic voting system enabling employees to cast their vote at work at all Toyota sites or at home.