Centre may reimburse pvt firms for increased maternity leave

NEWDELHI: In a bid to help women on maternity leave retain their jobs, the government may dip into labour welfare cess collected by states to reimburse employers providing maternity benefits to female staff, officials familiar with the matter said.

The proposal comes in the backdrop of the amendment made in 2017 to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, under which maternity leave was increased from 12 to 26 weeks to enable women to breastfeed babies for six months after birth. However, the increase in the leave appears to be triggering a decrease in the recruitment of women, according to several representations and surveys received, the ministry of women and child development (WCD) said on Thursday.

“When the maternity benefit act was amended, many complaints were received from women that organisations had begun harassing women seeking maternity leave. In some cases, they were even asked to leave...,” Rakesh Srivastava, secretary, WCD ministry, said Thursday.

WCD ministry officials said a proposal was made to the labour ministry to utilise the labour welfare cess collected by states to provide financial aid to private organisations.

“A meeting was called by WCD minister Maneka Gandhi to seek suggestions to curb these incidents and it was suggested that we use the cess. The 28th report of the standing committee of labour on ‘Cess funds and their utilisation for workers’ welfare’, quoting the ministry of labour and employment, states that till 31 March, 2017, an amount of ~3,2632.95 crore was collected as cess, out of which ~7516.52 crore was utilised for the purposes and objective of the Act,” one of the officials said.

Consequently, it has been proposed that the unutilised amount of cess could be used to reimburse employers.

“In a meeting held by the labour minister Wednesday, it was discussed that for the extra 14 weeks added to the maternity benefit act, we will be providing 50% of women employees’ salaries to private companies. Minimum wages of ~15,000 will be considered,” the WCD official added.

“This move will only endorse and legitimise the dereliction of duty and sheer illegality by private employers. Why won’t the government crack the whip on companies that violate labour laws? Why should taxpayers and public money subsidise private profiteers?,” said women’s rights activist Kavita Krishnan.