How Can We Encourage New Moms to Return After Maternity Leave Without Financial Penalties?

Dear All, Many female employees are resigning soon after maternity leave of 3 months without giving the notice period of one month. Can we make a policy to pay them the 2 months' maternity leave salary and the rest 1 month's salary only after rejoining and serving one month's duty? Kindly guide me with policies followed in other companies.

This happened in my company recently. One employee went on maternity leave, and after 3 months, she didn't find the right person to look after her kid. She extended her leave for another month and then asked for another extension. At that time, management told her to resign and instructed her to rejoin when she finds someone to care for her child.

Subsequently, she decided to resign. In her final settlement, management deducted the 3 months' salary that was paid to her during her maternity leave.

Is this fair? Is there any policy outlining what should be done when people resign after maternity leave?

Maternity leave is mandatory, and it will be a legal issue if we deduct maternity benefits.

Please let me know if you need further assistance or clarification.

Please, can anyone help me? What is the process for maternity leave?

1) How many days are paid by the company?
2) What is the process?

Please provide any suggestions as soon as possible.

• You cannot hold any employee's maternity benefit or impose conditions for payment. It would be against the provisions of the law.
• Secondly, if you implement the policy of paying Maternity Benefits after one month of service, female employees will be compelled to work until you pay their Maternity Benefit, but they may quit immediately after receiving the money. There will not be significant contribution from these employees who will simply be waiting until they receive their Maternity Benefit. Moreover, you will end up paying their salary for that period.
• It is also very shocking to note that female members of citehr are suggesting measures that go against female rights and are contrary to the provisions of the law.

Thanks & Regards

You are mixing maternity benefits with resignation. Both are separate issues. First of all, you have to pay maternity benefits for 84 days with pay. Secondly, if someone resigns without serving proper notice as per the terms and conditions of the appointment, then the salary in lieu of notice can be deducted from their full and final settlement.

I thank Malik Sir for giving the correct answer, as usual. It is strange to notice what has been rightly pointed out by vkokamthankar:

- "It is also very shocking to note that female members of CiteHR are suggesting measures which are against females' rights and are against the provisions of the law."

Termination/Resignation After Maternity Leave

Hello Sir/Madam, can anybody help or suggest me? This is Mr. Gopala Krishna, and my query is about termination/resignation after maternity leave after receiving maternity benefits up to 90%. My wife took maternity leave from 23.12.2017 to 23.06.2018. She was an employee of a staffing company/placement agency but worked for another company (Client) as a contract employee. She informed both companies about her maternity leave. She gave birth to a baby boy and received some maternity benefits from ESIC four months after delivery. It was very happy news for us that my wife received these benefits.

In the meantime, the client company recruited someone as a temporary employee to complete the pending work during my wife's leave. At the final stage of my wife's maternity leave, the client company decided to make the temporary employee a permanent one. As a result, there was no position for my wife to return to after her maternity leave. My wife decided to resign from her job to take care of our baby boy, but she did not formally resign. Meanwhile, about 10 to 12 days ago, she received her gratuity amount and realized she had already been terminated by the staffing company/placement agency.

This is the situation my wife is facing. She received a call from ESIC asking her to provide Form 10 and a self-declaration stating that she ceased to work after maternity leave or that she will rejoin the job. We have already provided Form 10 (a declaration from the employer stating awareness of the leave and any salary given during maternity leave) to ESIC. My query is that there is no position for my wife at either company. How can my wife provide such a declaration to ESIC (regarding the claim for maternity leave and notice for work)? What should we do? Please suggest a better way to solve this problem. My wife has decided not to return to work for one more year (because our child is six months old, and her presence is essential, and there is no position for her under sections 88, 89, 91 1/2).

Note: My wife received 90% of ESIC maternity benefits, and 10% of the benefits are yet to be received. Please advise me on how to close/solve our ESIC account issue without providing the form (claim for maternity benefits and notice of work 88, 89, 91 1/2).