Women staffers on contract can’t be denied maternity benefits: HC

Women staffers on contract can’t be denied maternity benefits: HC

Sureshkumar.k@timesofindia.com  23.10.2024 

Chennai : Contractual conditions cannot deny or offer less favourable maternity benefits to woman employees, Madras high court has ruled, pointing out that the Maternity Benefit Act would prevail over such conditions. The first bench of Chief Justice K R Shriram and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the order on Tuesday on a plea moved by the MRB Nurses Empowerment Association, seeking direction to the Tamil Nadu govt to extend maternity benefits, including 270 days of paid maternity leave to all staff nurses working under the National Rural Health Mission Scheme (NRHM) in the state. 

The benefits of the Maternity Benefits Act will be available to all woman employees who have completed 80 days of work in the establishment from which they claim the maternity benefit. Opposing the plea, advocate general P S Raman contended that the nurses are not eligible for any kind of leave applicable to regular govt servants, except for casual leave of one day per month and a day off. “In any other untoward exceptional circumstances, any individual is permitted to avail of leave other than the leave specified above, which will be treated as leave on loss of pay,” he said. › 

 ‘Maternity benefits not coterminous with employment tenure’ 

However, the bench relied on Supreme Court’s Dr Kavita Yadav case which held that once a lady employee fulfils the entitlement criteria specified in the Act, she would be eligible for full maternity benefits, even if such benefits exceed the duration of her contract. The court also held that maternity benefits are not coterminous with employment tenure, the bench added. In the Deepika Singh case, Supreme Court held that the Act was enacted to secure women’s right to pregnancy and maternity leave and to afford women as much flexibility as possible to live an autonomous life, both as amother and as a worker, if they so desire, the bench said. Therefore, the reliance by the state govt on conditions of the ap pointment and posting order to deny maternity benefits is untenable, the judges stated. The court then directed the state to consider and dispose of all pending and fresh applications for maternity benefits from NRHM nurses employed on a contractual basis within three months or three months from date of receipt of fresh applications, as the case may be, after making adjustments, if any, towards payments made earlier.