Explains Maternity leave practices in Sri Lanka in context with Labour Laws and Regulations

1. MATERNITY LEAVE
IN SRI LANKA

2. ACTS RELATED WITH MATERNITY
LEAVE IN SRI LANKA
• MATERNITY BENEFITS (AMENDMENT) ACT, No. 15 OF 2018
• SHOP AND OFFICE EMPLOYEES (REGULATION OF EMPLOYMENT
AND REMUNERATION) (AMENDMENT) ACT, No. 14 OF 2018

3. MATERNITY BENEFITS (AMENDMENT)
ACT, No. 15 OF 2018
AN ORDINANCE to make provision for the payment of Maternity
Benefits to women workers and for other matters incidental to
the employment of such women before and after their
confinement.
[Date of Commencement: 28th July, 1941]

4. 1. Short title.
This Ordinance may be cited as the Maternity Benefits
Ordinance.
2. Woman worker not to be employed for four weeks after
her confinement.
No employer shall knowingly employ a woman worker at
any time during the period of four weeks immediately
following her confinement.

5. 3. Period for which maternity benefit must be paid. The period
for which any woman shall be entitled to the payment of
maternity benefits shall be
(a) twelve weeks, that is to say two weeks up to and including
the day of her confinement and ten weeks immediately
following that day, if the confinement results in the issue of
a live child; and
(a) six weeks, that is to say two weeks up to and including the
day of her confinement and four weeks immediately
following that day, if the confinement does not result in the
issue of a live child

6. 4. Liability of employer and rate of maternity benefits.
The employer of a woman worker shall pay to such woman worker
maternity benefits at the prescribed rate
(a) for the entirety of the period of two weeks immediately
preceding the confinement and of the period of ten weeks
immediately following her confinement if such confinement
results in the issue of a live child; and
(b) for the entirety of the period of two weeks immediately
preceding the confinement and of the period of four weeks
immediately following her confinement, if the confinement does
not result in the issue of a live child:

7. 5. Payment of maternity benefit.
The amount of maternity benefit for the period up to and
including the day of confinement shall be paid by the employer to
the woman within forty-eight hours of the production of such
proof of confinement as may be prescribed.
The amount due for the subsequent period shall be paid to the
woman in two installments at the end of the second and the
fourth week, respectively, after her confinement.

8. • The Government has amended the law lifting hitherto
prevailed restrictions on maternity leave for women with
two or more children.
• The new amendments to the law make all women
entitled to 84 days of maternity leave irrespective of the
number of children they have.
• As per the PREVIOUS law, women with two or more
children are only entitled to 42 days maternity leave
whereas women who give birth to their first and second
child get 84 days maternity leave.
• Granted 84 days of maternity leave for every woman
who give birth to a live child.

9. Shopand OfficeEmployees (Regulationof Employment
andRemuneration)(Amendment)Act,No.14of 2018.
• .This Act may be cited as the Shop and Office Employees
(Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) (Amendment)
Act, No. 14 of 2018.
• A female employee to whom this Part applies, shall, if she is
confined, be entitled to take leave for a period of:–
(a) seventy days commencing on the date of her confinement,
if the confinement results in the delivery of live child; and
(b) twenty eight days commencing on the date of her
confinement, if the confinement does not result in the
delivery of a live child, the employer shall allow such leave.

10. Thank you