Am I Eligible for Maternity Benefits Without ESIC Coverage in a Small Workforce?

I am working in a manufacturing company in UP. I want to ask whether I am eligible for maternity benefits since I am not covered under ESIC due to a high gross salary. There are only 4 females on the roll out of 60 employees, but there are other females under a contractor. If I am eligible, what salary am I supposed to receive and when?

Waiting for your guidance because if I were covered under ESIC, only then would I receive paid leaves.

Thanks

Since the poster is working in a manufacturing company and is out of coverage of the ESI Act, 1948, she is entitled to all the maternity benefits under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, despite her higher salary. The number of employees is not the criterion for the application of the said Act in respect of factories, apart from the fact that contract laborers are also covered under the Act. Even where the minimum number of employees in the establishment is prescribed for the application of the Act, it refers to the total number of employees and not to the number of women employed therein. During the entire absence of 26 weeks due to maternity, the poster would be paid a salary based on the average of her wages during the three months immediately preceding. Let her HR manager refer to sections 2 and 5 of the MB Act, 1961.

Yes, it is true that my friend's referred advice. Please go through it. There is no salary limit. This does not concern the ESIC account. Moreover, the four women who are working as contract labor are also eligible for maternity benefits regardless of working under a contract labor agreement. All the best.

The answer to your query is an emphatic 'yes'. You are eligible for Maternity Benefit (MB). The MB Act does not prescribe the number of women employed in any factory or commercial establishment or the salary drawn for its application. It also doesn't exclude contract workers from its scope.

The eligibility for MB is that the woman worker should have been in employment for 80 days in the preceding 12 months prior to claiming MB, which is 26 weeks' paid leave. You need to follow the due procedure regarding the intimation of pregnancy with a doctor's certificate and the application for maternity leave.

Regards, Vinayak Nagarkar HR and Employee Relations Consultant