No proposal to change Maternity Benefit Act

No proposal to change Maternity Benefit Act – Minister replies in Parliament

While replying to a query in Lok Sabha Minister of State for Labour and Employment stated that as such there is no proposal is under consideration of the Govt to amend Maternity Benefit Act 1961. Key provisions of Maternity Benefit Act as per the reply of the minister is as follows

i) No employer shall knowingly employ a woman in any establishment during the six weeks immediately following the day of her delivery or her miscarriage. Also, no woman shall work in any establishment during the six weeks immediately following the day of her delivery or her miscarriage.

ii) Every woman shall be entitled to, and her employer shall be liable for, the payment of maternity benefit at the rate of the average daily wage for the period of her actual absence immediately preceding and in- cluding the day of her delivery and for the six weeks immediately following that day.

iii) No woman shall be entitled to maternity benefit unless she has actually worked in an establishment of the employer from whom she claims maternity benefit, for a period of not less than eighty days in the twelve months immediately preceding the date of her expected delivery.

iv) The maximum period for which any woman shall be entitled to maternity benefit shall be twelve weeks, that is to say, six weeks up to and including the day of her delivery and six weeks immediately following that day.

v) No deduction from the normal and usual daily wages of a woman entitled to maternity benefit shall be made by reason only of –

(i) the nature of work assigned to her by virtue of the provisions of the Act; or

(ii) breaks for nursing the child allowed to her under the provisions of the Act.

vi) If a woman works in any establishment after she has been permitted by her employer to absent herself for any period, during such authorised absence, she shall forfeit her claim to the maternity benefit for such period.

Source: loksabha.nic.in