Sir/Madam,
1. As per Section 6(5) of the Maternity Benefits Law, we need to pay the amount of maternity benefits within 48 hours of the production of the Birth Certificate. Is this true? I checked with some colleagues in fairly mid-sized companies, and their company is sending the maternity benefits every month like regular salary.
2. Our organization has fewer than 10 employees, and we are a company. Can we reject the maternity benefits claim?
Regards,
N. Pasha
From India, Guwahati
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11. As per Section 6(5) of the Maternity Benefits Law, we need to pay the amount of maternity benefits within 48 hours of the production of the Birth Certificate. Is this true? I checked with some colleagues in fairly mid-sized companies, and their company is sending the maternity benefits every month like regular salary.
2. Our organization has fewer than 10 employees, and we are a company. Can we reject the maternity benefits claim?
Regards,
N. Pasha
From India, Guwahati
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Adding another question for respected members.
1. What would be the medical bonus in Bangalore? I see in the Act it is INR 1,000, but in other articles, somewhere it is INR 3,500 and in some places as high as INR 25,000.
Further, do we need to pay this when we have taken health insurance for her and maternity expenses are covered in the insurance?
[8. Payment of medical bonus—(1) Every woman entitled to maternity benefit under this Act shall also be entitled to receive from her employer a medical bonus of one thousand rupees if no prenatal confinement and postnatal care is provided for by the employer free of charge.
From India, Guwahati
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1. What would be the medical bonus in Bangalore? I see in the Act it is INR 1,000, but in other articles, somewhere it is INR 3,500 and in some places as high as INR 25,000.
Further, do we need to pay this when we have taken health insurance for her and maternity expenses are covered in the insurance?
[8. Payment of medical bonus—(1) Every woman entitled to maternity benefit under this Act shall also be entitled to receive from her employer a medical bonus of one thousand rupees if no prenatal confinement and postnatal care is provided for by the employer free of charge.
From India, Guwahati
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The maternity benefits involve two monetary things. One is payment of salary for 26 weeks. The second payment is Rs 3500 (it's not 1000 or 25000 but it is Rs 3500) as a medical bonus. You can mark the woman employee availing maternity leave as "leave" and pay her salary every month as if she is on leave. This will satisfy the provisions of the law.
Similarly, payment of the medical bonus is to be made, and this is a one-time payment (not payable every month) provided you are not giving any natal care to the employee. If you send some nurse or ayah to her house to take care of her, then this payment need not be made. Naturally, you cannot offer any natal care for six months at a cost of Rs 3500. Hence, pay it.
Another important matter is the applicability of the Maternity Benefits Act to your establishment. If yours is a factory or mine, then it is applicable to you even if the number of employees is less than 10. But if your establishment is not a factory or mine, then there should be a minimum of ten persons for coverage. This ten persons shall include all employees including those on contract and casually engaged.
For the applicability of any Labour law, the constitution of the establishment, i.e., whether it is a proprietary firm, partnership firm, or a company, is immaterial. Laws become applicable depending upon the nature of activity, whether engaged in manufacturing, mining, plantation, trade and commerce, and the number of employees engaged.
From India, Kannur
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Similarly, payment of the medical bonus is to be made, and this is a one-time payment (not payable every month) provided you are not giving any natal care to the employee. If you send some nurse or ayah to her house to take care of her, then this payment need not be made. Naturally, you cannot offer any natal care for six months at a cost of Rs 3500. Hence, pay it.
Another important matter is the applicability of the Maternity Benefits Act to your establishment. If yours is a factory or mine, then it is applicable to you even if the number of employees is less than 10. But if your establishment is not a factory or mine, then there should be a minimum of ten persons for coverage. This ten persons shall include all employees including those on contract and casually engaged.
For the applicability of any Labour law, the constitution of the establishment, i.e., whether it is a proprietary firm, partnership firm, or a company, is immaterial. Laws become applicable depending upon the nature of activity, whether engaged in manufacturing, mining, plantation, trade and commerce, and the number of employees engaged.
From India, Kannur
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Thanks, Madhu!!
Follow-up question - "You can mark the woman employee availing maternity leave as "leave" and pay her salary every month as if she is on leave. This will satisfy the provisions of the law."
As per Section 6(5) of the Maternity Benefits Law, the prenatal portion of the leave is required to be paid in advance on the production of proof of EDD. Whereas the post-natal leave portion is to be paid within 48 hours on the production of a certificate of birth.
By paying the salary every month and not paying in advance or within 48 hours as the case may be, are we not violating the provisions of the law?
Thanks, PKAssoc
From India, Guwahati
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Follow-up question - "You can mark the woman employee availing maternity leave as "leave" and pay her salary every month as if she is on leave. This will satisfy the provisions of the law."
As per Section 6(5) of the Maternity Benefits Law, the prenatal portion of the leave is required to be paid in advance on the production of proof of EDD. Whereas the post-natal leave portion is to be paid within 48 hours on the production of a certificate of birth.
By paying the salary every month and not paying in advance or within 48 hours as the case may be, are we not violating the provisions of the law?
Thanks, PKAssoc
From India, Guwahati
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Payment of advance salary and full salary within 48 hours of childbirth is not practical, especially when the maternity leave was extended to 26 weeks from 12 weeks. Therefore, monthly payments would satisfy the legal requirements.
From India, Kannur
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From India, Kannur
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Hi Madhu,
We even have a case where a candidate has asked for maternity leave immediately on the first day of joining. We could not do anything about it as we did not know that she was pregnant at the time of the interview since it was conducted online. How should we handle such a situation?
She worked for exactly 80 days and is now going on maternity leave for 6 months. We are certain that she will not return.
Please advise us on how we can prevent such instances where candidates may be misusing these laws for personal gain.
From India, Guwahati
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We even have a case where a candidate has asked for maternity leave immediately on the first day of joining. We could not do anything about it as we did not know that she was pregnant at the time of the interview since it was conducted online. How should we handle such a situation?
She worked for exactly 80 days and is now going on maternity leave for 6 months. We are certain that she will not return.
Please advise us on how we can prevent such instances where candidates may be misusing these laws for personal gain.
From India, Guwahati
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Genuine maternity leaves are fine, but cases like these are rampant these days. We encourage genuine maternity leaves, but planning to join a company when a candidate is 6 months pregnant and then serving 80 days and then never returning back.
Members, has anyone gone through this kind of a case?
From India, Guwahati
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Members, has anyone gone through this kind of a case?
From India, Guwahati
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Hi,
When a lady attends an interview while 6 months pregnant, the interviewing authority should have noticed it and should have checked. If it is an online interview, the interviewer can ask direct questions to ascertain, though such personal questions are not appropriate and are prohibited in Western countries.
In the employment application form, you can consider adding a question for female employees. After the marital status question, add a question such as, "If married, are you expecting a child?"
In the worst-case scenario, there may be no option other than to accept and allow them to proceed on maternity leave. After all, out of the total employee strength, maybe 1-3 employees will be on maternity leave or even more.
From India, Madras
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When a lady attends an interview while 6 months pregnant, the interviewing authority should have noticed it and should have checked. If it is an online interview, the interviewer can ask direct questions to ascertain, though such personal questions are not appropriate and are prohibited in Western countries.
In the employment application form, you can consider adding a question for female employees. After the marital status question, add a question such as, "If married, are you expecting a child?"
In the worst-case scenario, there may be no option other than to accept and allow them to proceed on maternity leave. After all, out of the total employee strength, maybe 1-3 employees will be on maternity leave or even more.
From India, Madras
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why should a small organisation like yours which employs less than 10 employees should go for an online interview!!
From India, Kannur
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From India, Kannur
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Thanks Lakshmi and Madhu.
Madhu, why should a small organization like yours, which employs less than 10 employees, go for an online interview?
We are hiring, and we plan to reach 100 employees by the end of the year. Most interviews nowadays are conducted online as that's the norm and preference; most female employees also prefer working from home. Online interviews are kept in their interests to benefit them.
Madhu Ji, are there any ways to plug this loophole? Since it has happened once, chances are it can happen again. We certainly want to pay genuine MAT benefits, but we want to avoid cases where someone joins the company, completes exactly 80 days in their first 6 months, and then says they want to go on a 6-month MAT leave never to return.
From India, Guwahati
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Madhu, why should a small organization like yours, which employs less than 10 employees, go for an online interview?
We are hiring, and we plan to reach 100 employees by the end of the year. Most interviews nowadays are conducted online as that's the norm and preference; most female employees also prefer working from home. Online interviews are kept in their interests to benefit them.
Madhu Ji, are there any ways to plug this loophole? Since it has happened once, chances are it can happen again. We certainly want to pay genuine MAT benefits, but we want to avoid cases where someone joins the company, completes exactly 80 days in their first 6 months, and then says they want to go on a 6-month MAT leave never to return.
From India, Guwahati
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