Maternity Benefit and Leave under the Labour Act: 120 Days, Who Qualifies, How It Is Paid, and the Employer's Obligations after the 2025–26 Amendments

In this guide: Who qualifies and for how long · The amount: average wages under s.48 and Rule 16 · Notice, proof and payment under s.47 · Protection from dismissal and the s.50 presumption · What the inspector and the auditor look for · A working policy for employers

The short answer

Three questions decide the claim. Has she worked for you for six months immediately before the delivery? Continuous service under s.14, so a break of a few days does not defeat it; if yes, she qualifies. Does she already have two or more surviving children? If yes, no benefit, but the leave due to her may still be taken; if one or none, the benefit is payable. What is her average daily wage? Monthly gross wages divided by 26 under Rule 16; multiply by 120 and pay half within three working days of her producing proof of pregnancy and the rest within three working days of proof of delivery, by bank where she has an account. Around this sit the duties that do not depend on her asking: do not let her work in the eight weeks after delivery; take her off heavy or standing work in the ten weeks either side; do not serve notice of discharge or dismissal in the six months before or eight weeks after the birth unless you can prove cause unconnected with it, because s.50 preserves her benefit and the Labour Court will treat the timing as the reason. Use the calculator for the dates and the money, keep the notice, the nominee form, the proofs and the payment vouchers on the file, and read the employer’s guide to the Act for how the 2026 amendments fit together.

Who qualifies and for how long

The six-month qualification is measured to the day of delivery, not the start of leave, so a woman who joins seven months before the expected date and delivers early may fall short; the employer should take the position that service is measured to the actual date and decide on that. Miscarriage and stillbirth are treated in practice under the sick-leave and s.45 health provisions rather than s.46; the Act does not define “delivery”, and employers commonly grant the leave for a stillbirth after the seventh month. Adoption carries no statutory leave. Public-sector employees have 180 days under the government rules, which the amendments did not extend to the private sector despite the demand.

The amount: average wages under s.48 and Rule 16

Section 48 fixes the benefit at the daily, weekly or monthly average wage, as the case may be, payable in cash, with the average computed by dividing the total wages earned in the three months immediately before the notice by the number of days she actually worked in that period. Rule 16 of the 2015 Rules, as amended in 2022, simplifies this to the monthly wages divided by 26, and the 2025 Ordinance is reported to have adopted the same formula in the Act; where the two diverge the employer should pay the higher and record why. Three points on the base. Wages for this purpose is the s.2(45) definition: all remuneration in money, which includes house rent, medical, conveyance and food allowances and any dearness allowance, and excludes the employer’s provident fund contribution, travelling allowance and gratuity; a benefit computed on basic alone is short. Overtime earned in the three months is included in the s.48 computation because it is wages earned in the period; under the Rule 16 formula practice varies and the conservative course is to include the average. Festival bonus falling in the leave period is payable in the ordinary way because she remains in service. Increments due during the leave take effect on their date. The benefit is a wage for the purpose of deductions, so income tax at source applies where her income is taxable and her own provident fund contribution continues with the employer’s match. There is no ceiling, no state fund and no reimbursement; the cost is the employer’s, which is why the Labour Courts see so many s.50 cases.

Notice, proof and payment under s.47

The employer should acknowledge the notice in writing with the expected dates of the leave and the two instalments, because the three-working-day clocks run from the proofs and a dispute about when a certificate was handed in is the usual ground of a s.33 complaint. The medical certificate may be from any registered practitioner; the employer may ask for one but may not insist on its own doctor, and may not make payment conditional on a return-to-work undertaking.

Protection from dismissal and the s.50 presumption

Section 50 provides that if a notice or order of discharge, dismissal or removal is given to a woman within six months before or eight weeks after her delivery, without sufficient cause, she is not deprived of the maternity benefit she would otherwise have received. The section does not prohibit dismissal; it removes the financial incentive and, in the Labour Courts’ practice, reverses the burden: an employer who ends a pregnant or recently delivered woman’s employment must show a cause that stands on its own (proved misconduct after a s.24 enquiry, genuine redundancy under s.20 applied last-in-first-out, closure), and a s.26 termination “without reason” in the window is treated as colourable and set aside under s.33 with reinstatement and the benefit. The 2025 Ordinance’s new anti-discrimination provisions (ss.345A–C) and the complaint committee under s.332 give a further route for a woman who is denied leave, demoted or moved to a lesser post on return. Fixed-term and probationary workers are protected to the same extent while in service; a probation that ends in the window should be confirmed or extended on the merits with a written record, not allowed to lapse. On return she is entitled to the same post and terms; a different post at the same pay is accepted where the old one has gone, with reasons. An employer who declines to re-engage a contract worker after maternity faces the same s.50 argument through the agency.

What the inspector and the auditor look for

DIFE inspectors and buyers’ social-compliance auditors check the same file: the register of women workers with dates of birth of children (the two-child rule is applied from the register, not from questioning), the maternity notices and nominee forms, the medical certificates, the leave register showing the 120 days, the payment vouchers or bank advices for the two instalments with dates against the proofs, the roster showing she was not on duty in the eight weeks after delivery, and any transfer to light work in the ten-week windows. A factory with a crèche obligation (s.94: forty or more women workers, a room for children under six) is checked for it in the same visit. The commonest findings are benefit computed on basic rather than gross, payment at the end of leave rather than in the two instalments, leave recorded as 84 or 112 days, a woman on the roster in the post-natal eight weeks, and “resignations” dated in the month after delivery. Each is also a Labour Court claim: unpaid or short benefit under s.132 within twelve months, with the court able to add compensation, and under the 2026 Act the general penalty of Tk 25,000 to 50,000 and up to three months as reported.

A working policy for employers

Write the maternity section of the service rules at or above the Act and apply it to all women staff, workers and managers alike; the saving from treating managers differently is small and the discrimination claim is not. Keep a maternity register. On notice: acknowledge in writing, compute the dates and the money with the calculator, and diary the two payments. In the ten weeks before: light duties and no night work (s.109 already requires her consent for work between 10 pm and 6 am). During the leave: pay on time, pay the festival bonus, keep the provident fund running, do not require attendance. In the eight weeks after: no work, however willing she is. On return: same post, a nursing-break practice (the Act is silent; one or two breaks a day is customary and costs little), and the crèche where s.94 applies. Never serve a discharge, dismissal or s.26 notice in the six months before or eight weeks after the birth without a file that would survive s.50. For women staff outside the Act, put the same terms in the contract. Our service rules guide has the chapter; our wages and leave guide the other leave she may add to it.