CASE STUDY Submitted By-

Richa Goel (064) Ashish Garg (050)

Bishan Singh (011)

Case of XYZ Company

The employee who has joined the company for less than 80 days and has not been performing well since she joined.

During this period she is found pregnant and who is still on probation period.

Management is not happy with her performance and had asked human resource manager to retrench her on the basis of her performance.

Please suggest the HR manager how he/she will going to deal with this situation?

Situation faced By Company

Probation -Probation is the duration (usually 3 - 6 months) for an employee for which he will remain under supervision of the company for his performance and work culture. In this duration if his performance is not as expected and promising, the company may not approve his contract for further processing and he maybe asked to leave the organization (the worst scenario).

Maternity – The period during pregnancy and shortly after childbirth.

KEY WORD

Keeping in mind the current situation what would be your action if you are the Hr manager of the XYZ company?

In your opinion company should keep her or terminate her justify your answer?

Does policies of company need some changes, justify? According to maternity act she is not eligible for

maternity leaves what will you do in this case?

Question

What Law Say’s

The Act was enacted to have uniform maternity benefit provisions for all women employees.

Extent- This act extended to whole of India.

Object: (1) to provide for maternity benefit to women employees; and (2) to regulate the employment of women for certain periods before and after childbirth.

THE MATERNITY BENEFIT ACT, 1961-

Maximum period a woman is entitled to maternity benefit shall be 12 weeks of which up to 6 weeks shall be before the date of her expected delivery.

If the woman dies during this period, the maternity benefit shall be payable only for the days up to and including the day of her death.

A woman shall not be entitled to MB unless she has actually worked in the establishment for a period of not less than 80 days in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of her expected date of delivery

CONT…

Employer who fails to pay MB, or discharges or dismisses a woman during her maternity leave, he shall be punishable with imprisonment of minimum 3 months, maximum up to one year, and fine of not less than Rs. 2000/- but maximum up to Rs. 5000/-. If there are sufficient reasons, the court may impose a sentence of lesser term or fine only in lieu of imprisonment.

Any other contravention – imprisonment up to one year; fine up to Rs. 5000/- or both.

Penalty for contravention by the employer

If she is not performing well and she is into probation period then she can be terminated.

The procedure you can follow is; first you can issue an Show cause notice to her and give her some time (7 days) so that she can reply in writing the cause behind it.If the cause given by her is justified then retain her or otherwise issue a termination letter.

Expert’s View

you have kept some one in probation and her performance is not satisfactory than you have to give him a chance to improve and you have to issue letters to him for her weaknesses.

But in this case; it seems you are not much worried about her performance but you are worried because she is pregnant and on this basis you can not terminate her services. Very sad approach on HR point of view.

By Mr. J.S Malik

I think there is a need to rework on company's recruitment process. This is really bad part of you as an HR person to looking for terminating a pregnant women when she has just joined the organization.

This is not ethical practice. She should be helped and given a chance to improve. Trust me if she is physically unfit to perform well ,she will leave by herself and if she is not sincere towards work then also she should be given a chance. There is no point of terminating an employee just because she is pregnant, no matter she is within probation or confirmed.

Ms. Bharti Singh

Firstly see the circumstances why she is under performer ? Don't make pregnancy period criteria for termination. And you can terminate probationary after giving show cause notice.

Talk to her and find the problem with her performance If really the problem is with the work then you can very well Talk to her directly about the resignation not termination .

You can tell her in positive sense that we are OK if you resign with in a week also , just take care of your health because health is more important then wealth . This gives the employee a great strength rather then go in Bad mood or disturbed situation which disturbs our business activity .

Best Possible Solution

Pregnancy has nothing to do with her performance during Probation period. Build record before terminating her services such issue warning letter ,create file memos, advisory memos etc before termination.

She can ask for leaves without pay for such period on presenting medical certificates.

Extend her probation period by 3 months Issue her a letter that she will be under observation for xyz days if she doesn’t show her good performance that company can take strict action on it.

CONT..

Retrenchment is not the only solution which is left with the any HR manager.

Prepare new guidelines to deal with such situation .

Create proper work environment for women employees.

Understand the value of human, don’t always consider them as a resource.

Conclusion