Can an Employee Resign After Maternity Leave Without Returning to Work? What Should We Do?

Hi all,

I have a query. One of our employees has taken maternity leave, which means she received 6 months of salary from April 2018 to September 2018, and to date, she has not resumed work. Now, all of a sudden, she has sent a resignation email. My question is, after availing the maternity benefit, can an employee resign instead of rejoining the company? Should we ask her to repay us since she did not work during the paid months or after that?

Thank you.

Maternity benefit is a statutory right based on the employee's previous service only. Therefore, it cannot be recovered just because the employee failed to rejoin after its expiry. At the most, you can refuse to accept her resignation on the grounds of non-compliance with notice conditions and terminate her services due to unauthorized absence after following the legal formalities.