The largest teaching union could re-ballot members over industrial action as early as May, which would allow more teacher strike dates to be announced from September.
The NEU teaching union is set to debate an urgent motion tomorrow morning at its annual conference in Harrogate.
If passed by members, this would instruct the union to use the exam period next term to begin a re-ballot of teachers in England.
The joint general secretaries of the NEU, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, also said additional strike dates could be announced for the summer term, on top of the two that are already set to go ahead.
The NEU revealed this morning that members had voted overwhelmingly to reject the government’s pay offer, meaning two new national strikes will go ahead on 27 April and 2 May.
Mr Courtney said today that government should be “worried” about the NEU campaign continuing and that the results of the member vote to reject the pay offer “proves that we can win a re-ballot”.
On Tuesday, the conference is also set to debate a possible four-day strike from 9-12 May that would fall on the week of key stage 2 Sats, as well as a three-day strike in late June or early July.
Asked if the NEU could guarantee there would be no disruption during the exam period, Dr Bousted said that the conference would debate this this week and that she “can’t make any guarantees in advance of that debate”.
The conference will further debate whether NEU executives will meet with other teaching unions and look to “reach agreement on joint ballot timescales and publicly offer to them material and organisational assistance to help them reach the required thresholds”.
Mr Courtney said: “We intend to carry on in order to get a settlement for schools that involves investing in this generation of children and the people who work with them.”
The joint general secretaries once again urged the education secretary to continue to negotiate.
The NASUWT teaching union is not recommending that its members accept the pay offer, as it “falls short of what the union has demanded from the government both for pay restoration and on non-pay improvements”.
The union has sent out a survey to members asking whether they would accept or reject the offer.
Meanwhile, the NAHT school leaders’ union has said that if its members reject the government’s “inadequate” teacher pay offer, “it is clear that industrial action will be necessary”.
