India’s arguably generous maternity law benefits merely 1% of its women

Dear Client, Both the option offered by your Company to compel you to quit the job is highly arbitrary, illegal, and unjustified being a violation of relevant law of the land. It may please be noted that the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 is applicable to all types of establishments and women employees are entitled to the benefits in course of their pregnancy once they applied for the same to their employer following the provision of said Act. An employer is duty-bound to provide you the benefits provided under the said Act including the grant of maternity leave and payment for the leave period. Refusal of such benefits to employees makes an employer to face prosecution for violation of the mandatory provision of the said Act once it is reported to the concerned Authority. Don't be scared and be brave to reach out to the office of Labour Commissioner concerned for filing a complaint against the employer over the alleged refusal of maternity benefits and victimization of employee with ulterior motives to resolve your grievance. Once a complaint of victimization is raised and proved against the Company, it will be a lesson for them to change their attitude and stop them from any such unfair labour practice against you or any other employees in the future. As an employer, he is duty-bound to keep his status as a law-abiding citizen to run a venture/business in compliance of relevant laws applicable on the establishment.

Dear Client, From the prolonged content of your query, it appears you are extremely aggrieved with the service of the service provider and decided to move the Court for relief. On detection of defects in the product, post-purchase is termed and defined under Sec.2(34) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 as "Product Liability" which means the responsibility of a product manufacturer or product seller/service centre, to compensate for any harm caused to the consumer/customer by such defective product manufactured or sold or for a deficiency in services relating thereto. Chapter VI, Section 82 to Section 87 of the Consumer Protection Act deals with product liability and So, in the given scenario, serving a strong legal notice to both Service Provider and the product manufacturer, you can file a complaint against them over alleged deficiency in service and unfair trade practices before the District Consumer Commission under Section 35 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 claiming replacement of the vehicle or refund of the cost of the vehicle including the expenses incurred towards repairing/servicing along with compensation for harassment and cost of litigation. As per Section 69 of the CPA, the complaint should be filed within two years from the date of the cause of action. Since you have been facing a deficiency in service since 2017 up to now, your claim is now barred by limitation. So, you have to file a petition seeking condonation of delay on the grounds of continued cause of action along with your complaint petition and lead the evidence to justify your claim before the Commission. If required, hire the service of an experienced Advocate handling consumer cases to navigate the issue in the right way.

Dear Client, The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 states that a woman employee can apply for Maternity leave if she has worked with the employer for 80 days in the last 12 months immediately preceding the date of her expected delivery. The Act applies to establishments employing TEN or more persons, except employees covered under the Employees State Insurance Act, 1948 which also requires ten or more employees for application of the Act. A global organization even if it has more than employees on a roll, the branch of that organization in India is governed by the laws and legislation of the governing country. Accordingly applying the provision of the governing law, a branch having less than 10 employees shall not come under the purview of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961.

Dear Client, If the company extends the contract only then maternity benefits can be availed. However, you can ask the company for renewal an on declining the request, the reason for the same. If not satisfied, you can seek the grounds for your removal and take action accordingly.

Dear Client, In some cases, the employer may waive the notice period if the woman employee can provide a valid reason for leaving the job without notice, such as a medical emergency or a family emergency. Quitting job after took benefit under maternity act is not good conduct. If the agreement of the employment mandates notice period, then without serving notice period and resigning from the company might result in withholding of salary. If the policies or agreement of employment is changed which is in violation of Maternity Benefit Act, it can be challenged. Regarding the clubbing of other benefits, The Maternity Benefit Act only provides for maternity leave and no other benefits. Clubbing of additional benefits depends on the policy of the company. We hope that our response is helpful to you.