Ashwini Mhapankar
10

Dear All,
I am planning to make a change in company policy of my company. We are basically observing this issues from few months. Female employees who goes for a Marriage Leave or Maternity Leave takes the benefit on such leaves from company and later they resume the duties serves company for one or two months and leaves the organisation.
As per labour laws the compulsory maternity benefits we have to give to the employees and marriage is also a genuine reason for which we have to give some leave benefits to employees.
But after taking such benefits and finishing the formalities of working for one month and leaving the organisation is very unprofessional. I am planning to make some changes in policy due to this.
I shall need suggestions from Cite HR team members that what changes we can make in policy considering the labour law mandatory policies.
Regards,
Ashwini Mhapankar.

From India, Mumbai
Dinesh Divekar
7882

Dear Ashwini,

Is you company covered under Factory Act or Shops and Establishment Act? I recommend you providing leave to the employees that satisfies either of the two laws of the state in which your company belongs.

There is nothing like "Marriage Leave". It appears that your company might have introduced this leave as welfare measure. For marriage purposes, let all employees, men or women, accumulate their leave and avail it of. For extra requirement if any, they may take "Leave Without Pay" (LWP).

Women employees could be quitting their employment after marriage for the reasons like displacement, increase in the distance to commute to workplace etc.

As far as maternity leave is concerned, you do not have much control over it. You need to abide with either ESI Act or MBA of your state. Nevertheless, your problem is that women employees quit employment after availing of maternity leave. They could be doing this to take post-natal care of their baby. For this, think whether they can be given LWP for the six months. Once the child is year old they can very well join the organisation. However, again it bogs down to total strength of employees in your company.

A few women take break after maternity a few do not take. The choice varies from person to person. A few are ambitious, a few are not. A few attend duties because of monetary reasons. A few do not have anyone to look after the kid. Someone's husband earns sufficient money or are from well-to-do family and for them break of 2-3 years does not matter. Therefore, it will be difficult to generalise on this count. Best suggestions will come women employees as to how to tackle this problem! Therefore, you may have brainstorming session with them!

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar


From India, Bangalore
Anonymous
10

Dear Sir,
My company is a private limited Urban Infrastructure company comes under shop and establishment act.
We do not provide any extra benefits of marriage leave this will be deducted from their paid leave only or will be unpaid if no leave in balance. As you said in case of maternity leave we cant do anything but after marriage three female employees left company for better prospects.
I was planning to introduce a policy stating who ever is going for marriage leave we will ask them to avail it from there paid leave but 50 % of the salary of that particular period will be kept on hold and it will be paid after one year of resuming the duties.
Please suggest if this can be done.

From India, Mumbai
Jhuma Tiwade
80

Dear Ashwini,
You cannot withhold anybodies salary. What I recommend is to talk to the newly weds/new moms about their future plans and you shall get an idea as to if they are comfortable with their jobs post marriage/maternity, any support they need from organization, looking for higher salaries due to increase in expenses etc. The data shall help to derive the stability report for these employees. Please understand marriage and motherhood comes with additional responsibility and change of mindset. Something which was ok earlier may not be now. Be a catalyst in bridging the gap.
I was offered a two hour relaxation before and after maternity and it helped a lot as I started working when my son was only 3 months old.
I would like to quote one recommendation by one of my mentor " Work on the soft(mindset) part of HR and not the hardware(Processes) of HR"
Hope this helps :)

From India, Mumbai
Anonymous
10

Yes Sir.. Very True..
The same thing I had tried to explain to management but they are not ready for it. They just want a change in employee policy where they should continue with the organisation for at least one year after coming back for any of the said leave for which they want either to hold the employee salary o to get it written from employees to continue with the company.

From India, Mumbai
nathrao
3131

One cannot impose such conditions. Whether management wants it or not,law of the land has to be taken into a/c while making any changes.
From India, Pune
Jhuma Tiwade
80

Infosys had a major issue in one their appraisals when they tried a continuity bond post appraisal. You need to apprise your management about the pitfalls. Rest is not in your hands, right? Lest they know that they were made aware of the repercussion they can decide what they want.
From India, Mumbai
dbpawar
6

Dear Ashwini,
The problem faced by your company is common among the corporates. Many women employees go on maternity leaves and then attach their pending leaves to it. Some of them even do not come to office back. Just send their resignation by mail and move away. As per the compliance of MBA you cannot get away with that. To overcome this issue employer required to create the bonding among the employees.
It cannot happened on immediate basis but you have to take measures that will develop culture and values that will help employees to be retained with organization. Also you can ask your employees to resign before going on such leaves with assurance of giving back them job whenever they want to return back. Here it is very important that you must absorb them whenever they want to come back irrespective of the vacancy. At least, this can help you get away with extra burden of cost when they are on leave.
Regards,
Deepak Pawar

From India, Mumbai
Ashutosh Thakre
273

Dear Deepak,
Taking a resignation before going on leave is not an legal way. Its like asking an employee before his major happiness, to forgo of his livelyhood... Also the law does not support it. Its like creating different rules for employees, which is against the equality which we promise in the organisation. Will the HR also ask an male employee to resign if he is going on an marriage leave? if the answer is no... then we cannot create and promote such environment.
Regards,
Ashutosh Thakre

From India, Mumbai
Dinesh Divekar
7882

Dear Ashwini,

In addition to my last post, let me add my second comment.

If women employees are quitting employment after their wedding or maternity then it goes on to show that they are not necessarily attached to the organisation. Women quit because for them it is "one of the jobs" and similar jobs are available in the job market. What women staff show is their continuance commitment and not the affective commitment.

There are cases wherein spinsters select their match based on their career aspirations. Occasionally, the brand value of their organisation is so high that it matters lot for them to stay in the company. Against this backdrop, what your organisation needs to do is to roll out employee engagement programme. This programme will improve engagement of employees of all hues and not necessarily of spinsters or pregnant women. If you withdraw few benefits of women employees here and there then you may save some funds but the underlying problem of mental disengagement will remain.

Do you plan employees' career? Do you help employees to design their career plan? If not then start doing that. When the career path is laid, women folks might take halt somewhere but will not choose the new path itself.

All the best!

Dinesh Divekar

From India, Bangalore
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