Maternity leave for consultant employee

Under the new Law, maternity leave is raised from current 12 weeks to 26 weeks. The prenatal leave is also extended from six to eight weeks. However, a woman with already two or more children is entitled to 12 weeks’ maternity leave. The prenatal leave in this case remains six weeks.You can bring this notice to the child & women welfare department in your state. 

Hello!  

Maternity leaves and benefits in India are governed under Maternity befit Act and it covers employees of both the private and government sectors. To avail of maternity leave in a private company, the woman should have a working tenure of at least 70 days and she can claim 26 weeks leave out of which 8 weeks can be availed before the delivery and 18 weeks after it and it is irrespective of the salary and position of the employee.  

In any case, if she is being denied this leave, she can send a notice to the employer and if no steps are taken by the employer, she can file a complaint with the conciliation officer and it can further be forwarded to labor court under Section 33C of the Industrial Dispute Act.  

Regards  

Vasundhara Singh  

How to send notice can you please guide 

You cannot be denied the benefits on the grounds stated, if otherwise eligible. Section 14, 15 &17  of the Maternity Benefit Act provides for the remedy in this context. 

"14. Appointment of Inspectors

The appropriate government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, appoint such officers as it thinks fit to be Inspectors for the purposes of this Act and may define the local limits of the jurisdiction within which they shall exercise their functions under this Act.

15. Powers and duties of Inspectors

An Inspector may, subject to such restrictions or conditions as may be prescribed, exercise all or any of the following powers, namely:-

(a) enter at all reasonable times with such assistants, if any, being person in the service of the government or any local or other public authority, as he thinks fit, any premises or place where women are employed or work is given to them in an establishment, for the purposes of examining any register, records and notices required to be kept or exhibited by or under this Act and require their production for inspection;

(b) examine any person whom he finds in any premises or place and who, he has reasonable cause to believe, is employed in the establishment;

PROVIDED that no person shall be compelled under this section to answer any question or give any evidence tending to incriminate himself;

(c) require the employer to give information regarding the names and addresses of women employed, payments made to them and applications or notices received from them under this Act; and

(d) take copies of any registers and records or notices or any portions thereof.

17. Power of Inspector to direct payments to be made

(1) Any woman claiming that-

(a) maternity benefit or any other amount to which she is entitled under this Act and any person claiming that payment due under section 7 has been improperly withheld;

(b) her employer has discharged or dismissed her during or on account of her absence from work in accordance with the provisions of this Act, may make a complaint to the Inspector.

(2) The Inspector may, of his own motion or on receipt of a complaint referred to in sub-section (1), make an inquiry or cause an inquiry to be made and if satisfied that-

(a) payment has been wrongfully withheld, may direct the payment to be made in accordance with his orders;

(b) she has been discharged or dismissed during or on account of her absence from work in accordance with the provisions of this Act, may pass such orders as are just and proper according to the circumstances of the case.]

(3) Any person aggrieved by the decision of the Inspector under sub-section (2) may, within thirty days from the date on which such decision is communicated to such person, appeal to the prescribed authority.

(4) The decision of the prescribed authority where an appeal has been preferred to it under sub-section (3) or of the Inspector where no such appeal has been preferred, shall be final.

(5) Any amount payable under this section shall be recoverable by the Collector on a certificate issued for that amount by the Inspector as an arrear of land revenue."

What about the Maternity leave or benefits to the independent consultants of an organzation. We didnt mentioned any such benefits to the consultnant in her offer letter. Employee ID was given to support her on humanity grounds and Added her name in group health insurance. But she was not there in our payroll and also working to some other companies as consultant. Now she used to blackmail us by saying that will proceed legally. How we can face this situation. Please guide. 

Mr. Nag Raj 

Please post the query in a separate new thread.

So also, for more informed discussion, you may post the query at citehr.com

Hi

First point here is either your appointment letter mentioned your benefits or not (being a consultant,along with maternity benefit) and second, either your company is having that policy or not. Why beacuse, ofcorse maternity benefit act and other such acts are there to support but that must be in active in the company policies. Then only we can fight for our rights. Practically I am saying and not pointing anyone personally or professionally.  We can fight with the support of proofs only, not with the assumptions. So, try to grab the proofs and we can get it back for sure.

This is just my opinion please.