The government has notified the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 on 28 March 2017 and the provisions of the Amendment Act have come into force with effect from 1 April 2017.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment has received various queries regarding the applicability of the enhanced maternity benefit, as modified by the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 to be extended to women who are already on maternity leave at the time of enforcement of this Amendment.
To clarify the doubts, the Ministry in its press release dated 8 May 2017 has clarified that it is mandatory on the part of employers to extend the benefit of enhanced maternity leave to those women employees who were already on maternity leave on the date of enforcement of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, i.e., as on 1 April 2017.
SKP's Comments
The women employees who are already on maternity leave (under the previous law) on 1 April 2017, will now become eligible to avail enhanced benefits which will lead to an additional cost on the Corporates. We can expect more clarifications from the Ministry on various other provisions under the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017.
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