The Paper reporter Zhong Yuhao
The May Day holiday in 2024 is approaching. Due to the two days of work on April 28 (Sunday) and May 11 (Saturday), many netizens discussed the "routine" of holiday adjustment under the entry "May Day is actually only one day", and various voices surged into the field of public opinion.
In recent years, the topic of "May Day" holiday has almost become a "reserved program". Taking 2023 as an example, due to the need to continue to work on April 23 and May 6 of that year, there are also a large number of netizens discussing that "May Day actually only has one day off".
Previously, the official Weibo of the National Development and Reform Commission had posted an article to interpret the highlights of the 2024 holiday arrangement. The article mentions that the compensatory leave is a topic of general concern to the public in the holiday arrangement, and the views of the public are quite different at present. In general, it is better to take a leave of absence than not to take a holiday, and it has to be adjusted. Because among the 7 statutory holidays, the Spring Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival are determined according to the lunar calendar, New Year's Day, Labor Day and National Day are determined according to the Gregorian calendar, and the Qingming Festival is determined according to the solar terms.
According to the article, the compensatory holiday is an effective policy arrangement made to avoid the "fragmentation" of holidays under the premise that the total number of holidays is fixed. In 2024, the "9573" holiday schedule will be formed through the compensatory holiday, showing strong humanization and flexibility.
Specifically, by borrowing close to the weekend, the Spring Festival is at least 8 days, the National Day is 7 days, the Labor Day is 5 days, the New Year's Day, Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid-Autumn Festival are all 3 days, and the longest working day after the long holiday is 6 days.
The National Development and Reform Commission interprets the article that the annual holiday in 2024 will be more balanced, and the adjustment will be relatively small, so as to avoid the situation of long working hours after the long holiday, and better meet the actual needs of people combining work and rest. In addition, the holiday arrangement fully takes into account the date characteristics of these statutory holidays, forming four 3-day short holidays, a 5-day small long holiday, a 7-day long holiday, and a 9-day super long holiday. Through the reasonable combination of long and short vacations, people can make travel plans and arrangements throughout the year in advance, and have more and better date choices in terms of family visits, leisure, tourism, etc., so as to avoid "swarming" travel and "crowding" tourism.
Around the holiday "holiday", the voices of the two factions have been intertwined for a long time. In April 2023, Jiupai News commented on the article "Is the May Day holiday good, the flow of people is the most convincing" believes that there is a realistic demand for a long holiday, even if it has 10,000 kinds of badness, it is better than nothing. People who don't like long vacations can be "fine-tuned" personally, but this cannot call for others to be deprived of the right to long vacations. Whether from the perspective of tourism experience or tourism economy, the statutory long holiday may not be the best choice, but when it comes to the current national conditions, it is at least the least bad choice. It is important that it makes the provision of long holidays a predictable certainty for all.
The Red Star News commentary article pointed out that the reason why people love and hate holiday compensation is that, on the one hand, the holiday must mean that the public holiday must be adjusted, and on the other hand, the public holiday is bundled into the statutory holiday, which means that the right to rest of ordinary people is more secure - at least you can make holiday arrangements calmly, without worrying about "being overtime".
The article talks about the fact that from the perspective of the holiday economy, the one-off holiday arrangement is not the best option: the concentrated explosion of tourism consumption demand not only means that the pressure on the tourism service sector has increased sharply, but also means that the cost of public travel will increase, and even the consumer experience will be greatly reduced. However, from the perspective of ordinary consumers, it is not necessarily a sub-optimal choice after comprehensive consideration - it is also important to be able to enjoy a definite holiday when weekends are easily occupied and paid holidays are just "beautiful". Obviously, the "painful and happy" holidays and holidays expose not only "structural problems", but also "total problems". With the rapid development of the economy and society, the holiday system may wish to be reformed and optimized. Of course, more important than how to "optimize the structure" is that the total amount of vacation cannot be "shrunk". Therefore, it is worth paying attention not only to the statutory holidays, but also how to provide a more solid and powerful guarantee for the statutory right to rest.
In the eyes of opponents of the compensatory holiday, secondment weekends have disrupted the proper rhythm of work and life, and it is generally difficult to travel, buy tickets, and accommodation.
The "Suggestions on Further Optimizing the Arrangements for Statutory Holidays in China" published on the website of the Nanchang Municipal Committee of the China Association for the Promotion of Democracy in 2022 also mentioned that according to incomplete statistics, after the annual holiday arrangement was introduced, more than half of the respondents did not agree with the adjustment of leave for the purpose of making up for long holidays, and about seventy percent of them hoped that the normal work and rest time would be arranged without compensation.
In addition to causing problems such as long working days before or after the holiday, the "Proposal" also proposes that the original flavor of traditional Chinese festivals is gradually lost, and holidays have become shopping and tourism carnivals. To this end, it is suggested that more forward-looking and public opinion adjustment policies should be introduced from all parts of the country in combination with local conditions, and flexible and off-peak adjustment can be considered by industry and category.
For example, during the week, you can consider taking time off in batches (the total number of rest days remains the same), and the company can formulate the rest arrangement according to its own actual situation (the national statutory holidays must be closed), and the enterprise that needs to continue to work and cannot be interrupted for a long time can not be suspended.
In addition, it is recommended that the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival holidays are not adjusted, and some traditional folk cultural performances and celebrations can be held on the day of the festival, if the family is in other places, you can consider allowing early departure in the afternoon of the day before the holiday and the return time after the holiday (such as giving half a day for the return after the holiday) to avoid road congestion caused by concentrated travel; On the day of the festival, the whole people are encouraged to go out of their homes to participate in labor, and community organizations provide various public welfare labor and venues, carry forward the concept and spirit of "labor is the most glorious", create a good social labor atmosphere, and lead the young generation to be willing to work and be good at labor, so as to enhance the awareness of labor practice skills of the whole people.
How to respond to the public's simple public expectations?
The Yangtze Evening News pointed out in a relevant commentary article that it is difficult to reconcile all opinions, and the adjustment of holidays cannot satisfy everyone, so we can only respect the opinions of the majority as much as possible. Compensatory leave is only a means, and the key is how to have positive significance for people's work and life and economic and social development. This process of finding the optimal solution is bound to gain more recognition and resonance. To obtain the best solution, it is necessary to consider the whole situation and listen to the voices of the people, enterprises and institutions. If it is not enough to just "listen" to it, for example, from the point of view of the field of public opinion, there are many voices that are annoyed by the make-up shifts brought about by the holiday, and some netizens directly suggest that the long holiday be cancelled, but in the relatively "low-key" opinion, there must be many netizens who are in favor of the holiday and do not support the cancellation of the holiday, and it is necessary to get the same attention.
The Paper noted that in response to the problems that arise in the operation of statutory holidays, such as bringing about national production stagnation and exacerbating the imbalance between supply and demand in the tourism market, many units and experts have conducted research and put forward a lot of opinions and suggestions, which were sorted out by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2018.
At that time, the majority of opinions held that the most fundamental measure to solve the above problems was to speed up the implementation of the paid annual leave system for employees, and that the employees should arrange their own vacation time; The functions of education and rest should not be given too much consideration to their economic effects; at present, the number of days of statutory holidays on the mainland is close to the world average, which is basically in line with the level of economic and social development, and should not be increased by a large margin; traditional holidays carry the long history and culture of the mainland and are more in line with the requirements for setting statutory holidays, and should be retained; compensatory holidays and weekends should be regularly followed and announced as soon as possible, and cannot be arranged by the localities themselves; it is difficult to reconcile the arrangements for holidays and holidays, and it is impossible to come up with a plan that satisfies all members of society; therefore, the opinions of the majority of members of society should be respected, and the stability of government decrees should be maintained at the same time。
The "Youth Daily" recently published a commentary article entitled "When Will It Become a "Reserved Program?" published by the "Youth Daily" recently, also believes that it is imperative to fundamentally solve the problem, solve the "dilemma of compensatory leave", and earnestly promote the paid leave system.
According to the article, the state is promoting paid leave, but the implementation is not satisfactory. According to the survey data on the basic situation of human resources and social security in 60 cities conducted by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 60% of employees who have implemented a paid annual leave system (excluding units that can take winter and summer vacations) and have the conditions for leave are entitled to paid annual leave. In other words, 40% of workers do not enjoy the policy dividends. This cannot be unilaterally attributed to the business. The reasons given by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security include: insufficient publicity of the paid annual leave system and concept; the increase in job vacancies and labor costs caused by the leave of employees of enterprises, which affects the initiative of enterprises to implement the paid annual leave system; and some employees are afraid to mention or are unwilling to take it for fear of affecting their jobs, salary income, and rank promotion. Therefore, "enterprises have difficulties, employees have pains" is a blocking point that is difficult to implement paid leave. However, it is obviously not enough to rely on administrative guidelines and concept propaganda to clear the blockages.
"We should realize that such major events related to the vital rights and interests of all workers require the joint participation of the whole society to form a comprehensive governance. If we do not work together and do not implement the paid leave system, then no matter how the compensatory leave policy is adjusted, it will be a symptom rather than a cure. The article concludes.
This issue is edited by Xing Tan