The NASUWT teaching union has been forced to backpedal on its controversial appointment of Matt Wrack as general secretary and will instead reopen nominations for the post, ahead of a high court showdown.
Branches were informed this weekend that the NASUWT’s national executive had received “further legal advice” over flaws that had excluded other candidates and allowed Wrack – a former head of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) – to be appointed unopposed as the executive’s “preferred candidate”.
Neil Butler, the NASUWT’s national officer for Wales, and Luke Lockyer, a music teacher, had begun legal proceedings against the union over its handling of the nomination process, with a hearing scheduled at the high court in London on Monday morning.
But on Sunday the union abruptly declared that nominations would instead be reopened until 26 May, and specified that non-members such as Butler would be eligible to be nominated.
The union said Wrack, 62, would instead be “acting general secretary” until the election process was completed. If Butler or any other candidate receives at least 25 branch nominations, they would run against Wrack in an open election among members.
Lawyers acting for Butler and Lockyer began legal proceedings seeking an injunction last Wednesday, after the union’s announcement of Wrack as the new general secretary. At an emergency meeting on Friday, the executive was told that legal advice suggested the union was likely to lose in court.
The reopening of nominations will come as a relief to grassroots members who had been angered by Wrack’s appointment, coming only weeks after Wrack had been defeated in his bid to be re-elected as the FBU’s general secretary, a post he had held for 20 years.
Wrack’s close association with the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and his lack of a teaching or education background, had been controversial within the traditionally moderate union that restricts its membership to qualified educators. Wrack would be the first leader in the NASUWT’s history never to have been a teacher or lecturer.
The NASUWT said in astatementthat the executive’s recent decisions about eligibility would be rescinded, and that branches will “be permitted to submit nominations on behalf of members or non-members”. If required, an election is scheduled to begin on 19 June.
The executive’s statement said that “as a union it is important that there be stability and that the general secretary be appointed free from any suggestion that they have been elected otherwise than in accordance with due process”.
It added: “The national executive recognise that the local associations and individuals who have raised concerns about the process have done so in good faith and the union now have responded to those concerns by extending the period for nomination”.
Butler had applied to be the executive’s candidate, and later received branch nominations after Wrack was named instead. But those nominations were rejected on the grounds that Butler, a non-member as a union employee, was ineligible despite being a former member and teacher.
Butler’s lawyers were preparing to challenge the decision, arguing that the executive was rewriting the union’s rulebook at the same time as nominating a non-member, Wrack.
They also argued that the executive ignored valid complaints from members and branches, as well as a recommendation of its own national officers’ committee to extend nominations.