Chapter VI Chapter VI

No child shall be required or allowed to work in any establishment.

No woman or an adolescent shall be required or allowed to work whether as an employee of otherwise in any establishment during night.

No woman shall engage herself in employment in any establishment during the six weeks following the day on which she is delivered of a child and no owner or manager of an establishment shall knowingly employ such woman.

(1) If any woman employed in an establishment is pregnant and gives notice in writing in the prescribed form to the employer that the expects to be delivered of a child within six weeks from the date of such notice, the employer shall permit her, if, she so desires, to absent herself from work up to the day of her delivery ; Provided that before granting such permission the employer may, at his own cost require the woman to be examined by a qualified medical practitioner or midwife, and if the woman refuses to submit herself to such examination or is certified on such examination as not pregnant or not likely to be delivered of a child within six weeks, he may refuse such permission. (2) The examination referred to in the proviso to Sub-section (1) shall, if the woman so desires, be carried out by a midwife.

The absence of a woman during the period she is entitled to maternity benefit under this Act or, due to illness medically certified to arise out of pregnancy or confinement, shall be treated as authorised absence on leave.

(1) Every woman employed in an establishment who has been continuously employed in such establishment or in establishments belonging to the owner of such establishment for a period of not less than six months preceding the date of her delivery, shall be entitled to receive and the employer shall be liable to make to her, a payment of a maternity benefit at a rate for every day during the six weeks immediately preceding and including the day of her delivery and for each day of the six weeks following her delivery as may be prescribed by the State Government : Provided that no such payment shall be made for any day on which she attends work and receives payment therefor during the six weeks preceding her delivery. (2) The manner in which the maternity benefit shall be payable may be prescribed by the State Government.

Any woman employed in an establishment, who is delivered of a child, shall while she is nursing such child, be allowed half-an-hour twice a day during her working hours, for purposes of such nursing in addition to regular intervals for rest.

(1) When a woman' absents herself from work under Section 26 it shall be unlawful for the employer to dismiss her during or on account of such absence, or to give notice of dismissal on such a day that the notice will expire during such absence. (2) The dismissal of a woman at any time within six months before she is delivered of a child, if the women, but for such dismissal would have been entitled to maternity benefit under this Act, shall not have the effect of depriving her of such maternity benefit if the Inspector is satisfied that her dismissal was without sufficient cause.