China’s National Day travel madness exposes paid leave taboo

October 8, 2013 Leave a comment

China’s National Day travel madness exposes paid leave taboo

Staff Reporter

2013-10-08

While it seems a given that governments should should create practical and adequate conditions that allow employees to enjoy their vacation days, China faces unique cultural pressures that leave many in the office year-round. An important step to take would be staggering employee vacations, according to a report in Chinese-language news portal QQ.com. People who work in Western countries usually use their paid leave to take vacations, as they do not get several consecutive days off for national holidays. In China, however, people are used to taking vacations and making trips during national holidays such as the Golden Week National Day and the Spring festival Lunar New Year holiday since they are given several consecutive days off at the time, said the report.This situation results in low-quality vacations because of the crowds at major tourist spots.

It is widely known that the Chinese government does not make much of an effort to safeguard the public’s right to utilize their paid leave. The number of days allocated to annual leave is lower in China than in other countries, and the number of holidays employees are really allowed to take is even lower.

Statistics compiled by a magazine showed that only 31.3% of Chinese people enjoy paid leave every year, and 17.6% said they frequently take their paid leave. Some 26% of those polled take leave once in a while, and 21.8% never enjoy any paid leave even if they are eligible to do so.

The lack of strict regulations to penalize companies that do not allow their staff to take paid leave is the main reason that Chinese workers cannot enjoy their vacations on days other than national holidays, said the report.

Some people, on the other hand, believe the government should not interfere too much on the issue of whether employers should provide paid leave to their workers because too much enforcement may lead to a reluctance to hire more workers.

Filed under Macro Trends

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