The Centre may soon get empowered to notify the gratuity ceiling for employees from time to time.
This is going by the new Gratuity related Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha by Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, on Monday.
The present gratuity ceiling is ₹10 lakh and this amount was fixed in 2010.
The new Bill — Payment of Gratuity (amendment) Bill 2017 — also proposes to empower the Central government to notify the period of maternity leave in case of female employees as deemed to be in continuous service in place of the existing 12 weeks.
The existing period of 12 weeks of maximum maternity leave provided under the Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 for the purpose of calculating continuous service is on the basis of the period of maximum maternity leave as provided under the Maternity Benefit Act 1961.
Recently, the maximum maternity leave under the Maternity Benefit Act was enhanced from 12 to 26 weeks by the Maternity Benefit (amendment) Act 2017.