Understanding the 2017 Maternity Benefit Act Amendment: How Does It Affect Your Leave?

Dear Seniors,

I have learned that the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961 has been amended and came into effect on April 1, 2017. Could anyone please provide a brief overview of its key features and explain how maternity leave is applicable for a company under the Shops and Commercial Establishment Act?

Thank you.

In short, it's 26 weeks of maternity benefit leave for a pregnant woman, and if the employer refuses to comply, then it's 3 months in jail for him. For further details, you may Google for the latest Maternity Benefit Act and download it from the internet.

Dear Joseph,

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017

a) The introduction of 'Commissioning Mother' and 'Adopting Mother' has given wider coverage for insured women.

b) Maternity leave increased from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, which is not available to women who already have two surviving children; they are restricted to 12 weeks only.

c) Work from home for women employees may be given on mutual agreement by the employer if the nature of work permits.

Enhanced Maternity Leave effective from 1st April, 2017

Various circumstances and applicability of the amendment are as follows:

• The enhanced number of maternity leave as per the recent amendment would be applicable for women who apply for benefits on or from April 1st, 2017, only and not earlier.

• If previously claimed maternity leave gets completed on March 31st, then the leave need not be extended as per the new amendment.

Crèche Facility

For the applicability of crèche provisions, the total number of employees has to be 50 or more. However, the definition for 'employee' is not given under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, and so, in a strict legal sense, this can be considered as a whole and not gender-specific.

• If the total number of employees is less than 50, then a crèche need not be set up.

• Even if there is no woman employee in the total number of employees, these provisions for arranging/setting up of a crèche would be applicable. Also, if there are one or more women employees engaged in an establishment, then a crèche may be set up individually or with a common facility as the case may be.

• A crèche can be set up in a nearby, easily accessible, safe place with health and hygienic facilities. For other related points, the employer may follow what authorities suggest as there are no related rules or circulars issued so far in this regard.

• There is no restriction or ratio given as to how many children can be brought under the care of the crèche facility, and so, the employer may have to maintain all of them if the age is less than 6, suggestively.

• For other points not stated in the Act, as of now, we may have to go by what the authorities say until relevant circulars or notifications are published.

Regards,
Vinayak

Maternity Benefit Act and Its Applicability

From your post, it is understood that your company is registered under the Shops & Commercial Establishments Act. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, is applicable to shops and commercial establishments employing 10 or more persons. Employees who come under the purview of the ESI Act, 1948, or are ESI-covered employees, receive maternity benefits from the ESI Corporation. Employees not covered under the ESI Act will receive benefits from the employer.

As you are a woman, it would be beneficial for you to go through the bare act in detail along with any amendments. Since you already hold the position of Senior HR Executive, it is advisable to read all labor laws applicable to your establishment.

Hi Joseph, few salient features as highlighted in the Act are as follows:

1) The maximum period for which any woman shall be entitled to maternity leave shall be twenty-six weeks, of which not more than eight weeks shall precede the date of her expected delivery.

2) The provision provided for work-from-home facility will be effective from 1st July 2017, whereas the rest of the Act has been enforced from 1st April 2017.

For more information, refer to https://www.stacowiki.in/en/blog/201...eeks-26-weeks/

Hi,

Attached is the amendment copy. Please go through it for details. You can refer to the www.simpliance.in for a free online labor law library to download all recent amendments and notifications.

Thanks