A strike ballot organised by the UK’s largest education union will go “down to the wire”, HuffPost UK understands.
The National Education Union (NEU), which represents around 450,000 teaching staff across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is currently holding a formal ballot calling for a “fully-funded, above inflation pay rise” following a decade of eroded wages.
If it passes, teachers will join the current wave of industrial action by nurses, rail workers, ambulance workers and civil servants.
A preliminary indicative ballot by the NEU in October showed strong support among teachers and support staff for taking industrial action to achieve a pay rise — but there are fears that turnout for the formal postal ballot has been hampered by Royal Mail strikes and bad weather.
Under the Trade Union Act, NEU members are bound by higher turnout thresholds to push through strike action.
