Maternity Leave or Career Break
Advice on your membership during time off work
If you currently pay your BASSA/T&GWU subscriptions through payroll, then once you stop being paid by BA your subs to the Union will also stop by default and your membership will lapse.
It is possible, however, to maintain your membership throughout the period that you are not drawing a salary. It costs about 25p per week (£1.09 per month). To set this up, you should contact the T&GWU at Hillingdon on 020 8573 9494 and ask for C.A.T. Quote your BA staff number (which is also your T&GWU membership number) and they will advise you exactly how much you have to pay. You can then choose to pay either the whole amount in one go by cheque or you can set up a monthly direct debit.
If you already pay your subs by direct debit, then you should contact T&GWU as above to reduce your direct debit amount for the period of your time off.
There is no obligation to retain your membership whilst on maternity or a career break; you could decide to allow your membership to lapse and then simply "re-join" when you return to flying. However, you would lose certain rights and benefits enjoyed by a continuous membership. Also, please bear in mind that by allowing your membership to lapse, your details will be removed from the BASSA database which will mean that you won’t have access to the BASSA website and forum, email and postal newsletters, SMS text service, etc.
I hope this explains things - best of luck with the new arrival or whatever you are doing during your time off.
Regards
Duncan Holley
BASSA BRANCH SECRETARY