Can Contract Tutors at Karnataka Government Colleges Get Paid Maternity Leave? Seeking Advice on Rights and Next Steps

Dear All,

My wife works as a contract tutor for MBBS students at Bangalore Medical College, Bangalore, for the past two years. It is a college run by the Karnataka State Government and affiliated with Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.

I wanted to know if she can avail maternity leave post-delivery. When she enquired in the office, she was informed that she would have to take leave without pay. However, I am skeptical as I believe the Maternity Benefits Act applies to contract employees as well. Please assist by providing details of labor laws and whom to contact if we need to fight for her right to the leave.

Thanks and Regards,
Harsha

By contract, employees under the Maternity Benefit Act (like any other Labour enactments) means employees engaged not directly but through a contractor. In this case, your spouse has been employed on a fixed-term contract, say three years. In such circumstances, they have an equal status in respect of all benefits.

However, the establishment where your spouse is working, being an institution run or aided or controlled by the government other than a factory, plantation, mine, or shop, the application of the provisions of the Maternity Benefit Act will have to be clarified with service rules. If the service rules (Karnataka Service Rules) state that fixed-term contract employees are not eligible for maternity benefits, then there is no other choice.

On the other hand, if the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961, is the law applicable to employees of medical colleges, then your spouse will also be eligible for maternity benefits under the Act provided she had worked for at least 80 days during the last 12 months immediately preceding the date of delivery.

Regards,

Madhu.T.K