Navigating Maternity Leave: How Can Companies Ensure Employees Return After the Break?

Hi,

I have a query related to maternity leave. Please reply keeping legal as well as general HR practices in mind:

1. Is the salary the company is liable to pay during maternity leave based on the total salary or basic salary only?
2. How can a company assure that women will rejoin after the maternity leave period is over and not resign? Is there any way for the company to ensure that women will return to work after the break and not continue? Can we pay her maternity leave dues after she rejoins duty?

I am asking this question because one of our employees went on maternity leave and was supposed to return on 15th May. However, when she joined back, she resigned the next day, stating that she is finding it difficult to manage and may take a longer break after being relieved from the company. Please provide your comments on what the company should do in this case, as the company has already provided her with three months of free salary to cover maternity leave.

Whether she rejoins or not, it is a statutory requirement to pay her the last drawn salary/wages during her maternity leave if she completed 80 days during the preceding 12 months from the date of delivery.

Hi Reshma,

It's a statutory requirement, so the company has to adhere to this practice. Though there are ways to ensure that they would come back:

- Speak to the lady while she is on maternity leave. Generally, it has been observed that people do not communicate much with women during maternity.
- Keep sending them emails with updates on what is happening in their department and the organization. Keep them involved in important decision-making related to their department and role.
- Get to know about her family. Who all are there? Offer counseling; it surely makes an impact.
- Be clear about their role in the organization and career growth path. It is key to keep them motivated about their professional life.
- Also, accept the fact that this period is special for every woman. So, in case they want to extend their leave by one or two months, the option should be kept open after proper counseling.

Hope all this will help.

Regards,

Hi Monika,

I'm good. I haven't received any messages from you. What comes back to me is just the same message I sent you, that's all.

If you want, you can write your query here on the forum as well, and we can discuss it here with other members also sharing their thoughts and opinions.

Regards,