The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 is applicable
to all the establishment where there are 10 or more workers are working and the
pregnant women is entitled to avail this benefit if she worked at least 80 days
during the 12 calendar months. The benefits available under this legislation
are:
1. Under
the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act, women employee is entitled to take 26
weeks of paid leave and this benefit could be availed by women for a period
extending up to a maximum of 8 weeks before the expected delivery date and the
remaining time can be availed post childbirth.
2. For women who are expecting after
having 2 children, the duration of paid maternity leave shall be 12 weeks
(i.e., 6 weeks pre and 6 weeks post expected date of delivery).
3. Adoptive mother and commissioning
mother can avail 12 weeks of leave from the date of adoption but the child must
have the age of less than 3 months.
4. Creches facilities must be arranged
by the employer where there are 50 or more workers are working and women must
be allowed to visit at least 4 times in a day including rest intervals.
One of the criticism of this Act is
that, the employer should bear all the expenditure which may affect the hiring
of new women employees and this may also resulted in firing of women employees.
