Navigating Leave Without Pay and Earned Leaves After Maternity: What Are Your Options?

Dear all, I have a query regarding the process after the completion of the maternity leave period/break. I need your help to understand it better in terms of process and compliance.

Leave Without Pay After Maternity Break

1. After the maternity break (26 weeks completion), how many months can an employee go on leave without pay?

Handling Earned Leaves Post-Maternity

2. What happens to an employee's earned leaves:
(i) In the first case, suppose she has 10 earned leaves (EL): Does she need to use the EL quota first before opting for leave without pay? Or can she simply go for leave without pay first and use the earned leaves later?

(ii) In the second case, suppose she's back in the office and needs leave for some work or due to being unwell: Does she get earned leaves immediately? Since she has not worked in the last 6-7 months, how can the employer credit earned leave in her leave quota?

Regards,
Dipesh Prabhakar
Team Lead - HR

Dear Dipesh, Generally, the type of leave to be availed of in a given situation is the choice of the employee concerned, and the employer cannot dictate the order in which different kinds of leave are to be applied when the employee has sufficient leave credit. Of course, in the interest of unabated continuity of work, your organization's Leave Policy may restrict the length of the continuous leave spell and the combination of certain kinds of leave.

Coming to your queries

1) When section 10 of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 allows an additional leave of one month with wages on proper medical evidence in continuation of the 26-week maternity leave, I think that no employee would prefer any leave on LOP without exhausting it first. There is no statutory restriction on leave on LOP, if any, to be availed of following maternity leave. It depends on the health condition of the mother or the child or both.

2) The answer at the outset equally applies very well to this question. Any authorized ML or EL would be taken into account for the computation of 240 working days in a period of 12 months, but no EL will accrue during such leave is the rule.