Misuse of Maternity Benefits - clear intention on her part for not resigning before availing maternity benefit and resign after 26 weeks

Team, As a part of Maternity Law, the company is supposed to provide eligible benefits to the employee. Here, I would like to list out one case wherein, the lady who was pregnant did not resign from service just for the purpose of getting benefits as per law and after availing 26 weeks fully paid leave, she sent her resignation stating her inability to continue service due to motherhood.

In this case, apparently, the advantage of the law is taken by that lady and the company could not do anything except paying her all dues as per law. Had she resigned before 26 weeks, then the company would not have to pay 26 weeks fully paid leave and only pay during the notice period as per terms of appointment ( 1 month ).

Is there any provision in the law to recover such benefits as this is a clear intention on her part for not resigning before availing maternity benefit and resign after 26 weeks!

Thoughts !

Dear Mr Sanjay Vyas,

The post has been written with a preconceived opinion that the woman employee has "misused" the benefits of the Maternity Benefit Act. However, this is not the case.

It would be improper to link the maternity benefits and the resignation. The Maternity Benefit Act has been designed to promote the well-being of the working women after their pregnancy whereas the resignation of the woman employee was within the ambit of the employment contract or appointment letter.

Why focus only on the exit of women after maternity leave? Do employees leave your company or not? Have you calculated the cost of exit of each employee? What is the attrition rate in your company? Out of total exists, what % of women come under the category wherein they quit the employment after availing of the maternity benefit? The % must be a miniscule one.

Please look at the holistic picture of employee retention and not just an isolated case.

If you consider the disbursement of payment during maternity leave is a cost then let me remind you gentleman, the cost of poor quality, cost of poor productivity, cost of inventory blockage etc outweigh all other costs. Mistakes galore in operations and companies erode their competitiveness because of this. Therefore, look at the loss of pounds rather than worrying the loss of pennies!

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar