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Paid holiday — What’s that?
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Chen Jinfa has worked in a joint-venture manufacturer for 18 years. While climbing the professional and social ladder, he never considered taking his full paid holidays. Today he’s entitled to 15 days, but leave has been out of the question.
Since 1994, China’s labor laws have stipulated that employees are entitled to paid holidays after working for a year. But the law has no teeth, some people never take holidays, and many companies discourage paid leave. They suggest that putting in long hours without overtime, working on weekends and foregoing holidays will eventually mean promotion and money.
Now a high-level executive, 57-year-old Chen just welcomed his first grandchild and is determined to spend a two-week holiday with his family this year. So far, it seems impossible.
Chen switched from the public to private sector in early 1990s, around the time that the Chinese market started thriving.
“We all worked very hard. It went without saying that nobody really took paid holidays. We simply didn’t have time — it was business around the clock, and we considered it a pleasure and honor to be working so hard,” he tells Shanghai Daily.
It’s equally busy and demanding now, if now more so, but Chen says his thinking has changed. “I want to spend time with my family. But my schedule is already full until summer, and it’s likely to be equally busy after that. Maybe I’ll only have time to travel with family after I retire,” he sighs.
Paid holidays — and the fact that related laws are not implemented — were vigorously discussed at the recently concluded Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and National People’s Congress. The annual government work report emphasized the importance of implementing existing laws on paid holidays.
Huang Xihua, a NPC delegate from Guangdong Province, presented a survey in which more than 2,000 people were questioned about paid holiday, according to Xinhuanet. Forty percent said they did not take paid holidays, while only 30 percent said they could take their full paid holidays.
The 1994 labor law states that people who have worked more than a year and less than 10 are entitled to five paid days off a year. It’s 10 days after working between 10 and 20 years, and 15 days after working more than 20 years.
In reality, many people such as Chen don’t get their holidays.
Shao Qiwei, head of the national holiday office that sets public holidays, said in an earlier interview that last year he personally took only two days as paid holidays — a total of four days including a weekend.
“Nobody ever said I couldn’t take my paid holidays, but nobody takes them, and those who stay in the office until midnight and work on weekends always get promoted. You get the idea,” says Jeffrey Kuang, who works at a state-owned enterprise.
The company offers to encash their holidays and Kuang’s senior boss often praises those who haven’t taken a day off. It’s common for the marketing manager to work half a day on weekends and to be on duty on public holidays.
At age 35, Kuang has worked for 13 years. Thus, he was entitled to 10 days of annual vacation and another 11 days of public holidays last year. He took only five days off and worked on more than half the weekends.
“Nobody is forcing me to do it, but I’m not really doing it voluntarily. Because if I take the days off, it’s like I’m losing from the starting line. Not one of our senior executives ever takes their paid holidays,” Kuang adds.
He describes his use of holiday time as “average” and says that probably half of his colleagues took fewer than five days off last year.
“We don’t really get paid for overtime,” he says. “You can apply for it, but it feels weird since nobody really does it.”
The message is that employees should love their work and voluntarily put in the extra hours, not just for the money. “Then you will be repaid by promotions and money in the future,” Kuang says.
His situation is not uncommon. Many companies make it difficult and embarrassing for employees to ask for their legal, paid holidays. They don’t know where and how to apply and are made to feel guilty and like shirkers if they ask.
“The major problem is that we haven’t given this legal benefit enough attention. Nobody checks or monitors implementation,” said Cai Jiming, a delegate to the National People’s Congress and a professor from Tsinghua University.
Other delegates agreed it was difficult for employees to ask for paid holidays. They said the legal provision should be enforced with legislation providing systematic regulation and punishment for companies that violate the law.
Three years ago, 31-year-old Melinda Yuan turned freelance. “I wanted my holidays,” says Yuan who had worked at three firms and always had to fight for her days off.
“They just keep dumping new projects on my head so that I could never go away,” the former public relations manager says. “One time I was called back on my second day of vacation!”
Her last company organizes overseas trips as employee benefits, but the days are deducted from paid holidays.
“It’s hard not to go because they have made it into this team-building project,” she says. “If you don’t want to go, you have to turn in an official form, giving proper reasons — and get it signed by three bosses.”
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