Karnataka HC Refuses Petitioner’s Maternity Benefit Plea Saying Her Job Doesn’t Allow For Work From Home
Pregnancy, giving birth, and motherhood, in general, is very tough on a woman. Hence many countries and organisations are now trying to do their best to make it easier for women, especially pregnant women to hold a job and pursue careers. However, these things can be very subjective and in some cases can be taken advantage of. Recently Karnataka High court refused relief for one such working mother.
The petitioner who is working as a Senior Executive Engineer in the STARC which is the Semi Conductor Technology And Applied Research Centre challenged the two communications which were issued by the respondent organisation in court. She demanded that her representations for the sanction of a child care leave be considered and her salary which had been withheld since March 24th 2021 be released. The petitioner was called to rejoin her duty immediately using these communications.
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The Karnataka High court has said that maternity benefits like allowing employees to work from home which comes under 5 (5) of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017, can only be given where the nature of the women’s job allows for her to work from home. Justice R Devdas refused relief to the petitioner. He said that the woman works with chemicals and toxic gases. Moreover, the work that the organisation does is sensitive and involves risk. He further clarified that it is sensitive because the organisation works for the benefit of the Government of India which uses its research in defence fields and cannot be disclosed to the public. Because of this, the work cannot be carried on from home.
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According to LiveLaw, he additionally said, “The respondents are also on record, in their statement of objections, that even during the period of lockdown, the top officials from the cadre of Deputy managers have been functioning from the premises itself.”
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