Employees : benefits Allowable to the immediate family - spouse (WIFE)during pregnancy

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hey community @ trust this question find you all well , today i come to know that there are known companies to me where they not covered the maternity benefit to the female employee in the organization, where i know most of the MNC taking accidental policy and now a days they have covered Covid too ,
1 )i want to have the clarity from the experts on this is there any legal right/for the female employees where they can claim for the medical expenses and get benefited of the maternity / un der medical covered and not just to get only restricted to 6 months paid leaves …
2) why male employee’s spouse is not covered under maternity benefit ?
is there any act and practice where it is compulsory to give the maternity benefit to the male employee spouse.
also please share how can employee’s take the maximum benefit if both the partners are working and covered under medical policy by their own company ,

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Hi Vineeta,

Let me answer your query:

1.Any female employees should go for maternity leave mandatorily for 6 months as per the law. Now about reimbursement of medical expenses then there is no question of any legal rights. If company covered Maternity benefits in Medical/Health policy then you can reimburse the medical expenses. Insurance company will not provide maternity paid leaves.
2. As per the Maternity Act only female employees can get this benefit. There is no such practice to provide maternity leave to male employees. To male employees you can provide 10-15 days paternity leaves which is in practice but again this is not compulsory but generally all companies provide such benefits to their male employees.

You can take the maximum benefits under Medical policy only if your medical policy is covered for Maternity Benefit, else no.

I hope i have cleared all your doubts.

Regards
Arpana

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Dear Arpana ,

thankyou so much for your reply much appreciated , we all know that maternity leaves are nothing related to the male employees , kindly understand my concern for an example what I ’ m trying to explain let say company A ,employee X - Manish if his wife is pregnant and company not covered the maternity benefit under medical policy do Manish have any kind right ? as per Indian law or this is purely the management decision , her maternity expanses would be covered or not & if Manish under ESIC and Manish salary is less then 21000/ as per the company policy , secondly this is that totally dependents on whether they want to covered the maternity under medical policy or not ??? kindly share.

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Hi Vineeta,

  1. No, Manish doesn’t have any rights if medical policy doesn’t have Maternity Benefits covered.
  2. Yes, it is totally depend on employer whether to cover or not Maternity benefits to Medical policy.

I hope I have cleared your doubts.

Regards
Arpana

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Hi Vineeta,

  1. Maternity Benefit is only applicable to Female Employee.
    a. If Female employee is not covered under ESIC - She will get 26 weeks Paid leave upto 2 Child and Medical Bonus of Rs. 3500.
    b. If Female Employee is covered under ESIC - She will get the benefits from ESIC and not Employer

  2. Medical Benefit - In India as of today, there is no specific law which helps Female Employee or Male Employees Spouse for expenses during pregnancy. It is company’s prerogative, whether they would like to give Group Medical Insurance to Employee and to Cover the Employees Family and to Cover Maternity Expense.

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DEAR ANKIT & ARPANA,

THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY & REALLY USEFULL :slight_smile:

regards ,
vineeta

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Thank you @vineeta for taking time to acknowledge the help you received and showing the most valued community best practice- thanking the fellow member!

Another community contribution moment for our superstars @Ankit & @Arpana. Much appreciated for all that you do to bring smiles to the community :bouquet: :bouquet:

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