Anuraadhaa
22

Dear Seniors
We have situation in our company,
An employee (designation - Project Leader) has been on leave since mid Dec due health conditions. It all start by availing 1 week's leave due to confirmation of pregnancy. Her doctor advised her bed rest. So the company gave her leave for a week. Now this leave extended for almost till last week of March. ( Please note that there is no santioning of leaves taken till march. )
She then sends mails related to her joining back office on 1st April on half day working bases that too again if her doctor says ok. The company advised her to take complete rest due to health conditions and also coz there was no work / project assigned to her.
She has worked from home for around 8 to 10 days in dec which was santioned by her HOD. She now wants to claim her Maternity benefits and also the work from salary.
Is she eligible for maternity benefit now ?
Please advise.
Regards
Anuradha

From India, Pune
ranvijay22
Dear Anuradha
She is not eligible for Maternity benefit. As per Maternity Act a lady worker is entitle for leave before six week of delivery and after six week of delivery.
So, she is not eligible for Maternity benefit.
Regards
Ranvijay
Patna

From India, Pune
krmrao
22

Hi Anuradha

As per the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2007 passed by the parliament, the maternity leave to be given to a women who is pregnant upto 12 weeks say 3 months and if she is ill after delivery of a child she is entitled for an additional 1 month leave with wages, and if she is miscarried than she is entitled for another 6 Weeks i.e. 1 1/2 months of leave, all these leaves are with wages not on loss of pay.

Further the employer got to pay a medical bonus of Rs.1000.00 towards her medical expenses.

The act covers to all employed women in factories , mines, circus industry, plantations, and shops and establishments, employing 10 or more persons except the employees who are covered under the Employees State Insurance (ESI) for certain periods before and after child-birth and provides for maternity and other benefits.

If your Company is covered by ESI and the said lady whom you were referring is covered by ESI then the ESI organisation shall take the care of payment of all the Maternity benefits such as payment of wages for the such leaves to be granted as cited above and the employer had to pay only the Medical Bonus of Rs.1000.00 in toto and the women whom you have referred had to get check up from the ESI Hospital doctors and obtain Leave from ESI doctors and submit a copy to the Employer and when she join to duties she got to get the discharge form leave certificate from ESI Doctors and submit the same to the employer.

In your case you have to pay the wages for all the periods she was on leave as she is advised by her doctor for taking bed rest and certified so as you said, and the leave period is all so with in the permitted leave to be granted to a pregnant women. But the case is she is in early stages of pregnancy hence she has to go on loss of pay if she want to take leave at the time of delivery period i.e. before and after delivery as per the rules of maternity, if she gives you in writting that she would not insist for leave with wages at the time of delivery i.e. before and after than the employer can sanction leave with wages for the stipulated leave schedule as per the maternity rules as cited above and stop paying the leave wages at the time of delivery.

But any decision by the employer had to be in the orbit of natural justice, after all we are human beings and we have act accordingly and not too tough with the employee as they are the human capital to any organisation.


Mohan Rao
Manger HR

From India, Visakhapatnam
R.N.Khola
363

Dear Anuradha,
After explaining the situation you have asked our advice on payment of maternity benefit to your Project Director.For this I would like to suggest that if the M B Act, 1961 is applicable to your unit & the employee have worked for actually eighty days in your unit then she is entitled to have the maternity benefit from you.For more details you may also go through section 5 of this Act for taking decision in the matter.
Regards,
R.N.Khola

(Labour Law & Legal Consultants)
09810405361

From India, Delhi
Prasenjit Dasgupta
I assume your's is an IT company and covered under S&E act.
Hence, as rightly said above, she must complete 80 days in your Company to be first eligible for any benefit under MBA. I assume she fulfills that.
Second, against any leave she takes prior to confinement, you must adjust that against her quota of annual leave, sick leave, casual leave, etc. as per the leave rules of your company. For any excess leave, you must put her under Leave without Pay/ Loss of Pay mode.
Pls start her Maternity leave (ML), from the day she informs you in writing, on the commencement of the same. And yes, do not forget to start her salary too, till she completes the ML period.
Best wishes

From India, Delhi
malikjs
167

dear anuradha
ofcourse your query is incomplete.when she delivered a baby is not mentioned in your query.
if she has worked more than 80 days in your organisation than she will be entitle for maternity leave of 12 weeks ,out of that not more than 6 weeks leave can be availed before delivery of child.
regards
js malik

From India, Delhi
Raj Kumar Hansdah
1426

Most foolish comment I have ever come across in CiteHR.
Dear Friend,
Are you working in the HR Deptt. or some other department ?
If you are in HR, please do not give such utterly foolish opinions in public.
You will land yourself and your employer in problem.
Denying Maternity Leave is a punishable offence.

Please STUDY the Maternity Benefit Act.

From India, Delhi
Anuraadhaa
22

Hi,
I agree with Mr.Khole, Prasenjit and Malik,
She has worked for preceding 80 days in the org, so we will have to give her the ML.
If anyone would like to put more light in this issue, please do so.
Thanks a lot for all your advise.
Regards
Anuradha

From India, Pune
Ash Mathew
54

Dear Raj Kumar,

I dont think Ranvijay mentioned something wrong. He infact mentioned that the LADY is eligible for 6 weeks before the delivery & 6 weeks after the delivery. Maybe he did not understand the query.

The query was a bit unclear even to me. I thought the lady was claiming the leave she took from December (the start of her pregrnancy cycle) till march as maternity - which is not possible. Assuming that the due date should have been somewhere between (august - sept first week) - guess so... She must have been one month pregnant in December... )

So she should have taken leave already in July or August.

The query is confusing. As Mr. Malik has pointed, there is no info on whether she has delivered or not.

Ranvijay is aware of the maternity benefit. Just like how I got confused - even he must have.

Its a kind request to not make one feel bad of posting their query here - unless and until it calls for that. I urge you to read the post by Ranvijay..where initially he did state that she cant avail (because he thought she was claiming for it much earlier than the actual recommended), and later he has even cleared it stating that only 6 weeks prior or before delivery can the leave be taken.

(its better to react after reading things at least twice - I am no better though, but no harm in suggesting)



From India, Madras
balvhatkar
Hi,

Have been through your query and post comments by our colleagues on this platform, Please find my comments below:

1. According to section 5(2) of MBA one must fulfill eligibility i.e. 80 days working immediate before date of her expected delivery. Accordingly, I presume that she has not worked for the said period, presuming her expected date of delivery was August, 2009 as she has reported confirmation of pregnancy in the month of December.

2. Presuming, she has not been terminated or dismiss from the employment, she is entitled for the employment after six weeks from the date of delivery though she is on leave since December.

3. As per section 10 of the MBA, she can avail one month paid leave apart from maternity leave, hence, you will have to pay paid leave of one month under this section and not under section 5 (Maternity Benefit) as she doesn't qualify precondition for that.

4. As regard to her permitted employment from home, you have to pay salary for that period as if she has reported to work.

Apart from payment under para 3 and 4 referred above, you allow her leave without pay.

Hoping your query is resolved. For your information, I have attached MBA for your reference (May be old version).

From India, Mumbai
Attached Files (Download Requires Membership)
File Type: pdf maternity_benefit_act_1961.pdf (133.9 KB, 112 views)

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