Maternity Leave Eligibility: Can You Qualify Without an HR Confirmation Letter?

Hello, if an employee did not receive any confirmation letter from HR and she completed 1 year in the company, is she eligible for maternity leave?

If there is no confirmation letter issued to the employee, that does not mean that the employee is not confirmed. Maternity benefits will depend on whether she is under the ESA Act or the MB Act.

Dear colleague,

Assuming that she is covered under the MB Act and has worked for eighty days, she is eligible, whether confirmed or not.

Regards, Vinayak Nagarkar HR Consultant

As per the Maternity Benefit Act, a woman must actually work for 80 days in the 12 months immediately preceding her date of delivery to be eligible. It appears that she is fulfilling the eligibility.

Thank you.

The answer is yes.

She is entitled to maternity benefits.

A small but important correction to the first part of your answer. Confirmation of a probationer cannot be automatic unless there is a specific provision for "deemed confirmation" in the contract of employment or the standing orders. As long as there are no orders in writing by the employer, the employee remains a probationer only.

Once the Maternity Act of 1961 becomes applicable to the establishment, the employment status of the woman employee, whether she is confirmed, on probation, or temporary, does not matter. As rightly observed by other members above, what is required is that she must have worked for 80 days in the preceding 12-month period.