Gratuity - Maternity Leave

As per the Maternity Benefits Act, you are entitled to - 4 weeks pre-maternity leave (prior to the expected date of delivery) and further 4 weeks post maternity, in normal circumstances. You will be entitled to further 1 month leave arising out of any complications/sickness post maternity. However, the salary/wages for the maternity leave will have claimed from the ESI Corporation, in case you are covered by the ESI benefits. If you are not covered by the ESI benefits, then you would be entitled to average of your basic wages/salary for the above leave entitlement and also a medical bonus of Rs.2,500/- from the Company. As for gratuity, you are sure entitled for the benefit since you have completed 4 years + 240 days. 

vasudevan

Respected Sir,

Thanks for your prompt and valuable response to my query. But I am still confused. Let me tell you I have taken 15 days of Maternity leave before delivery and 3.5 months after delivery. that means i got 4 months maternity leave approved from management further I extended this leave by additional one month so total leave is 5 months. it is a different part that i may or may not get the maternity salary as per rule as it is upto our management.. Now as you said  I am eligible for gratuity as i have completed 4 years and 240 days in 5th year,  which I don't understand. I was working for 2 months ie April 2010 and upto 26th May 2010 (Before delivery) that means apporox. 56 days. I joined on 1st November 2010 and working as half day (getting half day working salary only) to till date. so my questions are :

How many days of maternity leave are considered for the calulation of gratuity purpose so order to complete 240 days criteria. as i am afraid i may not be able to complete 240 days my leave period itself is 150 days.

As I am working as half day only also including some unpaid leave due to many personal problems since November 2010. so how it will affect 240 days criteria?.

In this scenario if i am not completing 240 days in 5th year that means this 5th year is not eligible for the purpose of calculating gratuity? in that case how many extra months i will have to work to eligible for gratuity?

As my travel time from home to office and return is approx 6-7 hours daily and nobody is available to take care of my baby so actually i am planning to leave this job but don't want to loose gratuity. So kindly advise.

Waiting for your valuable advise.

Thanks and regards,

Archana

you are entitled for grauity, the period sept on meternity leave will be counted for the purposes of continuous service as difined in section 2A of the Payment of Gratuity Act.

Dear Archana,

Every type of regular leave, like, E/L, Paid Leave, Annual Leave, Half Pay Leave, Matrnity Leave, etc., are treated as parts of regular service. So, your eligibility for service gratuity cannot be denied after completion of 5 years of service.

PS Dhingra

Chief Executive Officer

Dhingra Group of Management & Vigilance Consultants

New Delhi-110089

Mobile: 09968076381

[dcgroup1962@gmail.com]

Thanks a lot for your valuable advice.

Thanks a lot for your valuable advice.

As per Section 2A of Gratuity Act, 1972;

an employee shall be said to be in continuous service for a period if he has, for that period, been in uninterrupted service, including service which may be interrupted on account of sickness, accident, leave, absence from duty without leave (not being absence in respect of which an order [***] treating the absence as break in service has been passed in accordance with the standing order, rules or regulations governing the employees of the establishment), lay off, strike or a lock-out or cessation of work not due to any fault of the employee, whether such uninterrupted or interrupted service was rendered before or after the commencement of this Act.

Above extract of law clearly speaks about consideration of continuous service, which includes service which may be interrupted on account of sickness. Your Leave/ absence from work due to Maternity issue falls within this category, making you eligible for Gratuity (since you have completed 4 years and 240 days of service).


On the other hand, non payment due to non performance on account of maternity issue does not give right to management of any employer to treat it as leave without pay. please be clear on it. It is your right and you can claim it. 

as our seniors explained you are surely eligible for gratuity , but keepin in mind;

- you should have employment letter as a proof of his emplyment

- your leave should be approved as per M B act

- you should have all documents of your leave from the employer

continuos service includes all - PL, SL, CL, NH, ML, Authorised absent etc

Is Maternity Leave - leave without pay of 1.6 years considered as Continuation of Service during a tenure of June 2005 till Feb'2011.

Anita Vaswani

Dear Sir,

It has been discussed in length in this thread that approved leave is not interruption in service.

Until or unless as per standing orders of the establishment the leave is with break in service you should be eligible.

You may rather obtain evidence of proper approval of leave. It should show the comments made on condition if any upon approval of leave.