Union subscription whilst on mat leave

[elvislives2012]

Hi
Am a nurse and started mat leave this month. I'm a member of the rcn and wondering what to do about my subscription. Apparently I can cancel and rejoin when I go back to work but won't be covered in the meantime. I'll be off for about 6 months and it costs £16pm.
What have other mumsnetters done?

I was with Unite, and they offer a reduced subscription fee during maternity leave, have you rang your union to see if they would offer something similar? If not, I'd personally stay as a member simply so that if you had any problems on your return to work they would definitely assist you.

I'd check for a reduced sub too. It's a bit of a fragile time to leave a union at the minute I would say.

My union has subs which are in line with pay bracket. It's about £17pm normally but when my income went down to less than £6k per year (i.e. maternity pay) my subs reduced to circa £2 per month. It looks like RCN is slightly less kind - www.rcn.org.uk/membership/nurse_member/nurse_voluntary_break seems to be what is available at £6.50 per month. If RCN function as a union as far as sticking up for you in cases of suspected discrimination then I'd definitely advice retaining membership, as when you are returning from Mat leave is when you are most at risk of being discriminated against.

Thank you all. The rcn don't offer a reduced rate, unfortunately. I'll stuck with them as you are all right, nursing and the nhs is a bit of a dodgy place to be right now!!

Why can't you do the £6.50 reduction?

My mat leave doesn't drop tight down until the end if march which is when I'll probably be going back to work anyway