Education secretary Gillian Keegan has urged the NEU teaching union to ask its members to “alert” headteachers as to whether they are planning to strike.
The NEU is set to hold the first of seven planned strike days on Wednesday 1 February in a dispute over pay.
In a letter to union leaders, Ms Keegan has now urged the NEU to “encourage” teachers to inform heads whether they are going on strike to allow schools to “take important operational decisions” and avoid “additional and unnecessary disruption”.
Teachers taking part in the strike are under no obligation to inform their schools about their involvement.
But Ms Keegan wants the NEU leadership to call on them to do so.
Her letter said: “I understand the importance of maintaining teachers’ right to strike, but I hope this important right can be protected whilst minimising the impact on children - especially in the context of the disruption they have faced due to Covid.
“With that in mind, I am calling on the NEU to encourage their members to alert their headteacher if they intend to take strike action on Wednesday. Doing so will allow headteachers to take important operational decisions to protect their children’s learning.
“You will be aware that there is no obligation for your members to alert their headteachers, and they cannot be required to do so, but your cooperation would help ensure our dispute does not cause additional and unnecessary disruption.”
The education secretary says she looks forward to a discussion with union representatives on Monday about “pay, workload and other non-pay matters”.
The letter, dated yesterday and published today, was sent to the joint general secretaries of the NEU, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, as well as the general secretaries of the Association of School and College Leaders, the NAHT school leaders’ union and the NASUWT teaching union.
It comes as many school leaders have spent the week weighing up whether to close schools on Wednesday during the strike, with some still in the dark as to which staff will be joining in the action.
Wednesday is the first of seven days of strike action in England and Wales planned by the NEU, and will coincide with walkouts by university staff, train drivers and 100,000 civil servants.
Around 23,000 schools could be affected, according to the union.
In a series of tweets today, Ms Keegan said: “I am disappointed the NEU is taking action despite our continued engagement.
“I’ve written to teacher unions calling on them to ask their members to inform schools if they intend to go on strike.
“Not informing school leaders means our headteachers will be less able to minimise disruption to children’s learning.
“I hope union members will help us keep our schools open.”
However, the NEU has responded in a tweet, accusing Ms Keegan of “cheap point scoring”.
The tweet states: “We are meeting Gillian 2pm on Mon; that’s the last chance to avoid Wed’s strike.
“That’s where she should be concentrating: resolving the dispute. However, the DfE failed to submit evidence to the STRB by yesterday’s deadline & instead we get this cheap point scoring. Not Good.”
NASUWT and NAHT also held strike ballots over pay. Although the vast majority of members voting supported the action, neither union reached the 50 per cent of members voting threshold in order to be able to launch the action.
