Maternity Leave Extension: Can You Benefit from the 2016 Amendment While Already on Leave?

I need help in understanding a doubt regarding the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act 2016. Suppose a woman has applied for maternity leave as per the old rules (twelve weeks of leave), and while she was on leave, these amendments are notified by the government, and the new rule of twenty-six weeks becomes applicable. Under such a scenario, can a woman (already on leave for 12 weeks under the previous act before the amendment) extend her leave (legally) to 26 weeks per the new amendments? I am sure many people will have this question. Any help or guidance on this will be humbly appreciated.

Thanks

Understanding the New Maternity Leave Duration

Now that the government has extended maternity leave, the new duration is six months, irrespective of whether you are currently on maternity leave or not.

The important thing to note is that today's date shouldn't fall within the six-month period from the start of your maternity leave.

Elaborating Simply

If you started maternity leave today, your leave is up to six months from today. If you started your leave last week, your leave is up to six months from last week. If you started leave three months ago, your leave is up to six months from three months ago.

Even if you have rejoined your office after completing your maternity leave, and you notice that today's date is less than six months from the start of your maternity leave, you are entitled to avail of the additional leave.

Example

If you started your maternity leave on May 11, 2016, under the previous rules, your leave would have expired on August 11, 2016, and you would have rejoined the office on August 12. However, the new rules require that six months be granted to all mothers. Thus, six months from May 11, 2016, extends to November 11, 2016. Hence, you are entitled to leave the office again for the prescribed duration up to November 11, 2016.

This also means that employees who had exhausted their paid maternity leave and extended with additional LOPs/LWPs (Loss of Pay/Leave Without Pay) are entitled to receive a salary for the same and also avail of the remaining additional pending leave amounting to six months. Therefore, the only people who will benefit from this new rule are employees who started availing of leave on or after February 11, 2016. (Since, obviously, the six-month rule does not advantage people before February 11, 2016.)

Employees who took three months of maternity leave last year cannot ask for an additional three months this year, since the rule applies only to the continuous entitlement of six months from the start of the maternity leave date.

The above has been formulated and concluded in accordance with various governmental organizations that experienced similar hurdles while implementing the same at the beginning of this year.

Dear Friends,

Was there any official ordinance, order, or notification received from the Government of India regarding the enactment in this regard? Please share.

Anil Kumar

So far, there is no gazette notification implementing the new amendment in the Maternity Benefit Act. As of today, you should continue to follow the old rule.

Current Status of Maternity Benefit Amendment Act 2016

@Anil: The official notification has not been published yet. The bill is pending in the Lok Sabha. The Labour Ministry had plans to enforce the amendments by passing an Ordinance. An article appeared in the Times of India stating that the Labour Ministry had urged the PMO for the same. However, there has been no update on the Ordinance since then.

@Smita: Where did you get the date 11th Feb 2016 as a reference? The amendments proposed in the Bill have not been enforced yet. Therefore, any woman applying for maternity leave before the release of the official notification or ordinance will only receive three months' leave. The real question is what will happen to women who are already on maternity leave on the day the notification is released. Can these women have their leave extended to six months, or will they not be eligible for the benefits under the new amendments? I request people practicing law to shed some light on this.

Regards,
[Username]

Unless specified, the amendment shall be prospective. Accordingly, the extended number of 26 weeks shall be applicable to only those who proceed on ML after the amendment is notified. In the existing case where the woman is already on ML, she will have only 12 weeks, which does not get enhanced automatically.

Mr. Anonymous,

Currency of leave matters much. The revised limit of maternity leave would apply if the female employee is still on such leave on the date of effect of the amended Act. If the period of her maternity leave has already expired and she joined her duty before the date of effect of the amended Act, she would not be able to avail the enhanced period of maternity leave.

Thank you so much for your replies. I have been receiving mixed responses and answers to this question. I understand that a woman who has completed her maternity leave period will not be eligible. However, confusion still persists for those who will be in their maternity leave period when the amendments are notified.

Some people say the new amendments will not benefit a woman actually on maternity leave (and has not completed the leave duration or not joined duty yet) during notification, while some people say she can get the benefit.

Clarification Needed on Amendment Interpretation

Could you please share the basis on which one can logically decide what will be the case? The wording provided in the amendment act is reproduced below:

"It shall come into force on such date as the Central Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint:

Provided that different dates may be appointed for different provisions of this Act and any reference in any such provision to the commencement of this Act shall be construed as a reference to the coming into force of that provision."

How do we interpret this?

Thank you.

Maternity Benefit Leave Extension Clarification

As explained by Mr. Dhingra, any woman availing the Maternity Benefit (MB) Leave that is completed before the amendment notification cannot receive an extension as she has already resumed her duties. However, if a female employee is on MB Leave and the amendment is announced during that period, she can apply for an extension in accordance with the amendment and can then avail the extended leave.

It is important to note that although companies have the option to grant an extension of MB Leave if requested, it is not currently mandatory to do so. I hope this clarifies the situation.

Regards

Naturally, when the currency of an event is not expired and the law is amended during that period, the new provisions of the amended law hold good during the currency of the event, if the law does not specifically provide otherwise.