Give us a break! Workers seek fairer treatment on taking holiday time
You start to plan your annual holiday and request leave permission from your boss. He tells you to pick another time because your proposed dates conflict with a critical period for business.
You postpone your holiday plans once, twice – and when you finally raise the issue again, the year is almost over and leave approval is still uncertain.
This frustrating experience happens to many employees in China, and that's why Hong Kong business tycoon Kenneth Fok, a member to the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, has proposed a revised vacation system.
The issue quickly became a hot topic online.
"Today, many new employees don't get any paid annual leave, and those who do are not encouraged to use it," said Fok, who is vice president of the Fok Ying Tung Group. "Employees not taking holidays may benefit companies in the short term, but that will not benefit the development of society in a long term."
Hong Kong business tycoon Kenneth Fok (second right) at this year's annual session of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
China's current vacation structure adheres to a regulation issued in 2008 by the State Council, China's cabinet. It stipulates that employees working for one year or longer, but less than 10 years be given five days of annual leave. The length of holiday time then increases to 10 days for those working for less than 20 years.
Fok said he believes the system is outdated.
"In an aging society like China's, young laborers with less than 10 years on the job are the backbone of our workforce, and they shoulder a lot of pressure," he said. "Giving them only five days' annual leave doesn't address problems of chronic fatigue."
Because annual leave is so limited, many workers tack personal holidays onto national holidays, increasing the pressure on transport, accommodation and tourism in general.
"Because holidays are not long enough, many people are forced to restrict leave time to provinces where they reside or neighboring province," Gok added. "Young people are important to the tourism market, so we need to better tap that potential."
He has a point. In recent years, sightseeing areas are reported to be crammed with tourists every national holiday.
Take the five-day May Day holiday last year, for example. Huangshan Mountain in Anhui Province received more than 117,000 tourists, many of whom failed to find proper accommodation and had to spend the night in a bathroom on the top of the mountain, according to reports.
In Dunhuang in Gansu Province, there was a camel "traffic jam" because so many people wanted to ride an animal during their holiday stay.
During the recent Spring Festival holiday, sightseeing areas were packed with tourists who could travel only on national holidays.
On Weibo, Fok's proposal became the most searched topic, with about 100 million views. While most netizens said they fully support Fok's proposal, some were quite pessimistic about its chances.
"Our company doesn't even allow annual leave. Who can help us?" commented one netizen.
"At least let me have two-day weekend first," said another.
Fok suggested that labor supervision authorities should take actions to ensure that companies are meeting leave requirements.
"Two-day weekends or employee annual leave should not be denied unless there are special extenuating circumstances," he said. "And regulations need to be more specific about "extenuating circumstances" and what compensation should be paid."
