A teacher strike vote that failed to meet the legal turnout threshold has been challenged after members claimed they did not receive ballot papers.
This afternoon, the NASUWT teaching union announced a strike by members would not go ahead despite 90 per cent voting for strike action, after only 42 per cent of members took part in the ballot in England and Wales.
At least 50 per cent of eligible members must vote in a strike ballot, with 40 per cent of all eligible members approving the action.
But several NASUWT members have told Tes that they did not receive their ballot papers despite chasing several times.
Teacher Emma Reed told Tes she sent three emails to the union to say she hadn’t received her ballot but received no response.
Ms Reed added: “I don’t have time to chase my union about strike ballots so I just left it.”
In an email seen by Tes, the union acknowledged missing ballots, but said it could not deal with replacements because it has “to put in a request to the independent scrutineer, Civica, and it takes them up to 48 hours to send a paper out.
“We are aware that replacement papers have been taking longer than anticipated due to the postal delays,” the email continued.
“In some cases, they have taken around three weeks due to the postal disruption and how pre-printed ‘business mail’ is treated as last priority by some sorting offices (after parcels, hand-written envelopes, other personalised mail and even franked mail).”
Another member, who preferred not to be named, told Tes: “I’m in NASUWT and never received my ballot, despite requesting it multiple times, so was unable to vote. I’m assuming I’m not the only one, so it’s frustrating to hear that the vote is invalid due to low voter turnout, when there’ll be many like me who tried our hardest to vote but were unable to.”
The NASUWT ballot opened in England and Wales on 27 October and closed on 9 January.
The CWU union’s Royal Mail members went on strike over six days across December, causing a backlog of delays to mail being delivered.
The NASUWT launched the ballot after it said ministers had failed to engage in negotiations with it over teacher pay, despite repeated calls to do so.
Ballots from the NEU teaching union and the NAHT school leaders’ union are also closing this week, with results expected on Monday.
And last week, almost seven in 10 members of a major headteachers’ union voted to move to a formal ballot on strike action as the general secretary says the results show the ”strength of feeling” among members.
