Financial help for the medical expenses to a year old employee suffering from cancer

Just to apprise you of this case, there is an employee who has been working with the organization for the past year. However, in October 2019, we found out that she is suffering from cancer and would be on extended leave to undergo treatment. Although she had leave balance, the management decided to financially support her to cover her medical expenses since she was the sole earner. The management instructed us to continue her salary for the next six months and to allow her to utilize the mediclaim facility provided by the company. She is currently in recovery, and her last salary was credited for the month of March. Therefore, I have the following queries for labor law and HR experts.

1. If we cease her salary from April, are there any legal obligations that my organization may face?

2. We are willing to grant her unpaid leave; however, can this be done while still allowing her to access our mediclaim facility as an employee?

We are committed to supporting her morally and financially on a personal level, but I aim to ensure that my organization remains compliant and avoids legal complications. Please provide guidance.

Dear friend,

In the first place, the gesture of your management is highly laudable, though the unfortunate employee afflicted with cancer happens to have just a year of service in the organization.

Coming to your queries, I think that by this time all her leave would have been certainly exhausted, and the inevitable option of leave on LOP would be in place in view of her short span of service and longer duration of treatment. Therefore,

(1) Stoppage of salary from April 2020 onwards for her absence, if any due to her continued treatment of the disease, will not at all be illegal; better you get a formal leave application for leave on LOP from her.

(2) Leave on LOP for a genuinely serious disease like cancer cannot affect the right of the concerned employee to avail of the company-sponsored mediclaim facility or vice versa.

Thank you so much, @Umakanthan.M, for your response.

Also, is there a policy in place wherein we cannot stop paying an employee or terminate him/her during the lockdown?

The government has sent an advisory to all employers not to terminate employees during lockdown and to pay them wages without any deductions even though they are on leave or the workplace is non-functional due to COVID-19.