Navigating Maternity Leave Resignation: Which Date Should We Use for Her Exit Papers?

Hello All, I just want to discuss that one of our employees was on Maternity Leave from June 22, 2015, till September 22, 2015, and she won't be able to rejoin the company due to some personal reasons. On October 01, 2015, she resigned from her duties, and we accepted the resignation on October 14, 2015.

Date Consideration for Relieving and Experience Letters

While preparing the relieving and experience letters, which date should be considered: June 22, 2015 (her last working day but she was on paid salary) or October 01, 2015 (when she resigned)?

Kindly help...

Thanks & Regards, Sveta

It should be 1st Oct 2015 as you would have paid wages for Maternity Leave as per the Maternity Benefit Act.

Regards,
Keshav Reddy

In such situations, it is always good to add one more sentence, like, her last working day was 21st June 2015. To be clearer, the service certificate shall mention that she has worked in this establishment from... to 22nd September 2015. She was relieved from duties on 14th October 2015 following her resignation dated 1st October 2015. Her last working day was 21st June 2015.

If instead of sending the resignation by mail or post and asking for relieving offline, she had come on 14th Oct, she would have received a fair service certificate stating that she had been in service from... till 14th Oct and was relieved following her resignation dated 1st Oct.

Regards, Madhu.T.K

The date of leaving should be October 01, 2015, as employment cannot be terminated during the course of maternity.

Her date of leaving should be October 1, 2015, as employment cannot be terminated during the course of maternity.

Termination After Maternity Leave

If she has already completed the statutory 84 days of maternity leave, can the company still not terminate her for not reporting?

If she has submitted her resignation, how is it considered a termination? Or is it that if a woman who has availed herself of the full length of maternity leave submits her resignation, we should not accept it but continue to treat her as an employee and pay her salary every month?

It is understood that termination during the time a woman is receiving maternity benefits is illegal. But beyond this, what is the liability?

Regards,
Madhu.T.K

It may be an issue if we mention 21st June as most of the companies pay PF for the ML period wages as well. Imagine you mention 21st June in the letter and paid PF till 12th Sep, which is the ML closure date; it will be an issue at the time of transfer of the PF. I suggest mentioning 1st Oct and including her ML details as a note.

Regards, Keshav Reddy

There is no issue with PF because it is not based on the service certificate that PF is transferred. Moreover, in the service certificate, we mention the last working day separately, and after that, we mention her service until the date of actual relieving. Therefore, there is no illegality in it. Showing the last day of work in the service certificate makes the certificate more authentic because with this, the holder of the certificate cannot claim a service or experience she has not obtained.

This is a matter of only three months, but just imagine if she has been granted leave without pay for, say, one year in anticipation that she will return to work, but after one year she resigns. Can she claim a service or experience she has not gained? No, not at all. But since the date of actual relieving from the rolls is one year later, we will provide a certificate showing that date as the date of relieving but with additional remarks of her last working day in the organization.

Regards,
Madhu.T.K

When an employee is on authorized/paid leave (regardless of the type of leave), it is not a healthy practice to consider the last actually worked day as the Date of Resignation (DOR). This could lead to unnecessary confusion and various other issues. I am unsure of how the company calculated the notice period. Was it waived? Since her salary has been paid until the date of resignation, there is no need to think otherwise.

Consider a scenario where a male employee is incapacitated due to sickness or accident, and his service is terminated without returning to work. In such a case, we wouldn't typically consider mentioning the actual working day as the Date of Resignation (DOR). Therefore, the effective date of resignation should also be considered as the DOR.

Importance of Date of Resignation (DOR)

The DOR is very much relevant and crucial for reckoning the length of service/continuous service for the purposes of computing eligibility for gratuity, leave, clearing of probation, appraisal, and granting increment, bonus, etc. (though some of these may not be relevant to this querist). If there appear two different dates on the service certificate, it will create confusion while the above benefits are finalized. Also, when two different dates are mentioned, there is scope for further inquiry into the causes in her future career prospects and jeopardizes the interest of an employee. Therefore, it is advisable to mention the date on which the resignation is given effect to.