Resignation (under pressure) during pregnancy - was it right to do?

[deepika]

Hi,

I was working with a private Indian company (travel industry) since 2 May 2011. I got pregnant in August 2011 and informed my boss accordingly. Now, in January 2012, when i was into my 6 months of pregnancy, i got sick and my gynaecologist prescribed 2 weeks bed rest about which i informed in the office. But due to my condition, i could not join office and kept on taking leaves without pay and kept my boss in loop as well.

After some time, i started getting calls from my office asking me to either commit a date to join back or to take a decision to quit. I did not want to quit as i wanted to avail my maternity benefits, but my office kept on pressurising me. Infact i was told indirectly that i will have to pay back the notice period OR pay the”leaves without pay” once i quit.

When i cross-checked this from my boss (not once but multiple times over call and in person), he assured me that i don’t have to pay any money as i would be leaving on medical grounds. So, i took the decision under pressure and resigned in March.

The day i resigned and asked for my relieving letter, i was shocked to hear from my HR manager that i have to pay a month's salary. Now my boss is also giving a excuse that he was not aware of the policy and i have to pay a month salary to the organisation.

I strongly feel that it was all planned because how come a senior person like Head of Marketing can commit to an employee without consulting HR deptt? .. Not only this, i requested for a “work from home” option not once but multiple times from my boss when they were pressurizing me to commit a date. I would have worked from home till my delivery and then would have availed my maternity leaves. But they never agreed to it and actually fooled me and sent me a full and final settlement sheet 4 days back mentioning the notice pay amount.

Could you please help me in figuring out what to do now and what are my rights in this situation?

[admin]

You could have applied for maternity leave ( up to 6 weeks before delivery) and during this period it would have been illegal to dismiss you or punish you in any way. By giving voluntary resignation, you've forgone your right to avail this benefit. You could have taken 3+1 month of maternity leave in which 3 months would have been fully paid salary. I think that's why they fooled you in resigning. They have saved 3 months of your salary and other benefits. Such companies routinely indulge in this with every pregnant woman to avoid paying ML benefit.

Although I'm not legal expert but I can clearly see that you are at full fault yourself by resigning. About notice period amount request them a waiver else send all office employees an email telling how they conned you into resigning to deny you maternity benefit.
Instead of resigning if you'd simply faxed them a maternity leave letter, they would have been helpless then.

[deepika]

i feel helpless now.