As soon as the "May Day" holiday arrangement came out, the "compensatory holiday" policy once again caused controversy.
It was found that after deducting the weekend and 2 days of make-up work, May Day is actually only one day.
In this regard, the migrant workers who are on duty on weekends and take single days off are particularly regretful. Because they have not yet recovered from the 7-day shift after the Qingming Festival, they have to face the "May Day" festival before the 9 consecutive days, and the longest after the holiday up to 13 days of continuous shifts.
During the month-long period, in order to make time for "Qingming" and "May Day", the employees who originally had two days off also spent 3 single rest weeks.
2024 is the 25th year of the implementation of the compensatory leave system, and opinions on "compensatory leave" have accumulated to a new height.
In order to make time for "Qingming" and "May Day", the weekend has become 3 single rest weeks
There are two realities before us:
Today, China's annual public holidays are stable at 11 days, compared to 10 in the United States, 9 in Germany, and 17 in India.
However, people's actual experience of holidays, in addition to public holidays, also includes a larger and flexible space for weekends and paid annual leave, and for the latter, although "flexible leave" has been advocated for many years, it gives people the impression of "thunder and rain".
Understanding the origin of the holiday, you will see the multiple thoughts of the Chinese about the holiday; and out of the "moving game" of the holiday, we can find the daily reality of the holiday.
25 years of hiatus, holiday tourism has become the main axis
On the Internet, many people miss the holidays that were not compensated before. However, this memory is different from reality, because from the beginning of the "Golden Week" long holiday, there has been a compensatory holiday.
That was in 1999. The new holiday method was released, the Spring Festival, Labor Day, National Day 3 days off, New Year's Day 1 day off, through the adjustment of the weekend before and after, the National Day in 1999, is the first "Golden Week".
According to the regulations, the National Day holiday was only 3 days, and the reason why it became "Golden Week" was because the 3-day National Day holiday coincided with Saturday and Sunday, so it was made up for from the working day, and the next weekend was adjusted, and the consecutive rest was composed of 7 days.
October 2, 1999, Beijing, visitors outside the Forbidden City. The National Day in 1999 was the first "Golden Week" in mainland China
If you look at the People's Daily in 1999, you will see how excited people were about this first "Golden Week".
The railway traveled from south to north, and it was busier than during the Spring Festival, and the number of people who received and sent groups by a travel agency was 50 percent higher than that during the Spring Festival; the Beijing Scitech Shopping Center extended its business hours to 2 o'clock in the morning; the deputy director of the propaganda department of the Shunyi District Party Committee at that time, who was in charge of distributing the exhibition tickets, was both happy and sad, he did not expect everyone's enthusiasm to be so high, and he could not find more tickets.
Later statistics were unexpected, and in this first Golden Week, the number of trips nationwide was 10 million more than that of the Spring Festival, forming an unprecedented holiday tourism boom, and this wave of popularity created tourism revenue of about one-twentieth of the year.
This phenomenon was once again confirmed in the "May Day Golden Week" in 2000, and the number of tourists once again set a new record.
After the "May Day Golden Week" in 2000, in June, marked by the notice issued by the General Office of the State Council, in a very short period of time, promoting tourism consumption has become an important function of the "Golden Week", and the tourism data of the Golden Week has also become an indicator in the tourism statistical bulletin.
The 1999 movie "Endless" reflected the boom of the tourism industry at that time
At the same time, a coordinating office, the Office of the National Inter-Ministerial Coordination Conference on Holiday Tourism (hereinafter referred to as the "Holiday Office"), which was dedicated to coordinating the organization of Golden Week and public holidays, was located in the then National Tourism Administration. Even though the "holiday office" was abolished in 2014, its function is still under the tourism work.
Now, 25 years after the secondment of Hugh's "Golden Week", people are aware of the problems associated with it.
The pressure on the management of transportation, accommodation and scenic spots has increased sharply, pushing up the cost of operation and management; the overload of congestion has ruined the tourism experience and increased the contradictions; after the holiday, the tourism is cold, the passenger flow is uneven, and the businesses are busy and idle. There are also criticisms that the excessive pursuit of the economic value of holidays has drowned out the spiritual and cultural functions of holidays.
In 2006, Cai Jiming, head of the holiday system reform research group at Tsinghua University, advocated that the "Golden Week" system should be retired. The voices in favor of "Golden Week" believe that despite the drawbacks of tourism and transportation, its leisure value and the role of family reunion are difficult to replace.
Cai Jiming
The response and compromise to this disagreement is that since 2008, after consulting the society, the "May Day" and "Eleventh" Golden Week have retained one of them, and the "May Day" has been slimmed down, from 3 days to 1 day, and at the same time the three traditional festivals of Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival have been increased by 1 day each, and with the help of the holiday, it has evolved into 4 3-day small long holidays, and the public holidays have formed a "Golden Week + small long holiday" configuration.
Although the "Golden Week" has not been completely cancelled, people have realized that the holiday economy is too dependent on the original three "Golden Weeks", the structure is not reasonable, and even if it is difficult to reconcile, the holiday system is still being adjusted.
Different approaches
It is also a small number of public holidays, but many countries have cleverly avoided the hassle of compensating for holidays.
There are many examples of this, such as the re-establishment of holidays in 2003, many of Japan's public holidays fall on Mondays, similar to the United States and Germany, where a considerable part of the holidays are held on Fridays, and even in India, which has a unique calendar with 17 public holidays, many holidays fall on Mondays and Fridays.
The benefits are obvious, public holidays are naturally connected with weekends, which not only avoids the situation of weekend make-up work in order to form consecutive holidays, but also gives the public a sense of increased holidays.
In Japan, if there happens to be a working day between two statutory public holidays, in order to avoid the trouble of repeated holidays, work, and holidays, the working day in the middle will also be turned into a holiday, forming a continuous holiday without making up the shift - that is, "making up the day off without making up the shift".
In 2024, you will be able to take up to 10 consecutive days of paid leave during Golden Week in Japan, including "Substitute Holidays" for compensatory holidays
In the United States, too, there is no means of appropriating weekends with make-up shifts for the sake of patchwork holidays.
"The federal government stipulates that there shall be no less than 10 holidays per year, all of which fall on working days, and employers can choose which holidays or anniversaries to put together. "A friend who works in New York told me that her company has Veterans Day and no Easter holiday, but employees in need can use their paid annual leave. Her first year was 7 days and her second year was 10 days.
According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average paid annual leave for full-time employees in the United States is 10 days for employees with 3 years of service, and increases to 12 days after 5 years of service, and 15 days for employees with 15 years of service.
However, paid annual leave in the U.S. is not statutory or mandatory, but is at the discretion of the employer. While many employers are self-conscious, in addition to the 10 days of statutory public holidays, consulting firm Forbes estimates that more than half of the 28 million Americans do not receive any paid annual leave, and still work during the annual leave.
"The United States is not a developed country with a lot of vacations, it requires a lot of careful planning, and it is not at all afraid to use the annual leave of the superego. The New York friend said.
In contrast, Americans appreciate paid leave benefits in European countries more.
For example, the French who especially like to go to the beach in the summer have the most annual leave, up to 31 days, and once there is a difference of one or two days between a public holiday and a weekend, the company or employee will decide whether to use the annual leave to "bridge" instead of "change shifts".
In Europe, the French who like to go on beach holidays have the most annual leave
Brits have a maximum of 28 days of annual leave, but only if they work five days a week or risk it will be discounted, while Britons only have eight public holidays a year.
In addition to regular public holidays and paid annual leave, my New York friend was envious of her mother, who worked in Germany, for her extensive "religious leave".
"Many Europeans don't get paid for their summer vacations, they just choose not to work on their own, and they make an appointment to go on vacation to southern Europe, and the company will not fire them, but it doesn't mean that the salary is paid (without discounting). My friend said, "Compared with the public holidays on the books, Europe and the United States are half a catty, and the actual experience comes from cultural differences." ”
In her opinion, except for a few good benefits, American companies are stuck on the bottom line of holidays, and the bottom line is: weekend holidays or overtime pay.
Fighting for a vacation is struggling
When they return to China, some people look forward to compensating for a period of time off to visit relatives and travel, while others are disgusted with the interference of make-up shifts on the rhythm of work and life.
Over the past 25 years, the consultation plans at different stages have not jumped out of the framework of compensatory leave, and the 11-day public holiday a year has been maintained for 16 years.
In fact, policymakers have also managed to increase the length of vacation during this period.
In 1995, the State Council made a decision to "revise the working hours of employees", and the main change was to shorten the working hours, which was also the starting point of the "five-day working day" in China.
In those years of catch-up construction, does this decision sound a little whimsical?
Yes, Hu Ping, then director of the China Science and Technology Research Center for Development of the State Science and Technology Commission, who put forward this idea, also heard similar objections: If you can't finish it in seven days, you will have five more days! China's current situation is not a matter of implementing a five-day work week, but of working harder to catch up.
Stills from "Endless".
Hu Ping thought so, when he went abroad for exchanges, he found that not only Europe and the United States, but also more than 100 countries around the world implement the five-day work week, including 28 of the world's poorest countries.
Hu Ping didn't understand: why is it that other countries can still develop while working five days a week is not enough for us to work six or seven days a week?
At that time, many studies attributed this to low production efficiency and backward technology, but Hu Ping felt that the factors of people and management may have been ignored.
Hu Ping recalled that at that time, enterprises and institutions generally worked overtime, because the level of productivity was not high, and it seemed that they could only make up for the lack of efficiency by extending working hours. But in fact, working hours are not used effectively, and it is common to arrive late and leave early, read the newspaper during work hours, knit sweaters, sneak out to buy groceries, and pick up children.
Hu Ping said that at that time, the effective working hours of most enterprises in China only accounted for 40%~60% of the system working hours, and the advantage of implementing the five-day work week was that it could reduce the cost of manpower, electricity and equipment that were wasted.
Although it was initially piloted at Hu Ping's research center and put on hold for years, it finally saw the light of day in 1995 when it required employees to work eight hours a day and 40 hours a week.
In February 1994, the State Council promulgated the "Regulations on the Working Hours of Employees" and began to implement the "big and small weeks of rotation rest system (single and double holidays)"/National Business Daily
Although the regulations also leave a gap for other methods of work and rest to be introduced due to the nature of the work or the characteristics of production, this is nevertheless a useful effort to increase the rest time.
Later, in 2007, the number of national statutory public holidays was increased from 10 to 11 days at the same time as the "May Day Golden Week".
Employees who have worked continuously for more than one year are entitled to paid annual leave, 5 days of annual leave if they have worked for 1 year but less than 10 years, 10 days of annual leave if they have worked for 10 years but less than 20 years, and 15 days of annual leave if they have worked for 20 years. For the number of days of annual leave that should be taken by the employee, the employer shall pay 300% of the salary income.
Interestingly, when the policy was first introduced, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) noticed that public opinion was worried that the "Regulations on Paid Annual Leave for Employees" would not be effectively implemented, and until 2023, policymakers were still urging that paid leave be implemented at the grassroots level.
Until 2023, policymakers are still urging: let paid leave land at the grassroots level/Source: Stills from "Hometown, Don't Come Unharmed".
During the period, starting from 2020, the "May Day" holiday arrangement, which had been slimmed down for 12 years and was originally only on May 1, was greatly boosted by the hand of the holiday, and the weight gain from a 3-day small long holiday to 5 days.
After a little consideration of the borrowed 4-day holiday, you can understand another reason why people's pain is more obvious on May Day - the holiday is not as long as the Spring Festival and National Day of seven or eight days, but it is necessary to make up the same class.
In the complex algorithm of addition, subtraction, and transfer, the workers in the field of public opinion are not angry - why is it so difficult to take a holiday?
Flexible vacation, the real fragrance still looks beautiful
With the advent of the paid annual leave system, flexible leave is seen as an alternative to compensatory leave and a solution to the problem of "traveling together".
Logically, flexible leave encourages workers to use annual leave to bridge the gap between statutory holidays or weekends, and staggered off-peak vacations, which can help alleviate the pressure on all parties.
However, the skeptical view is that flexible leave is not good for vulnerable workers, and the rigid unified leave contains coercive force, which is a low level but at least the protection of rights and interests for workers who cannot afford to play games with employers. When paid leave has not yet become a shared right for workers, flexible leave will exacerbate the inequality of leave rights.
There is also an argument that flexible leave respects the right to free choice while alleviating the problem of overcrowding during Golden Week, a logic that may be applicable in developed Western countries where labor laws are well-established and there is little excessive competition for labor, but taking into account China's national conditions.
There is an opinion that flexible leave also needs to consider China's national conditions and restrictions/Source: Stills from "Settle Home".
At a larger level, some analysts have pointed out that the positions of employers, employees, and policymakers on the issue of leave are not completely consistent, and there are also considerations of production efficiency, economic development, and industrial structure transformation, which are all challenges to the reform and implementation of the leave system.
After all, in the past two decades, the development of many industries and economies has benefited from the high-intensity work of Chinese workers, and the resulting supply chain and continuous iteration ability to respond quickly to demand are most fully reflected in the international competition of smartphones......
Judging from the constraints of "can't take annual leave, dare not take it, and don't want to take it", it is always difficult to change the inertia.
There is never a one-size-fits-all system and policy, but before solving the problem of how to land, it is first and foremost to reach a consensus on "what is worth doing", because the choice of direction determines where the supporting policies will be gathered.
Despite all the difficulties, the holiday doesn't have to be so complicated, it's just about a simple question: what do we think about vacation, and what do we take it for?
For a moment, when I tried to find enough convincing value for the holiday, I finally found that the so-called working better, having time to study and improve, spending to treat myself, and falling in love with my family are probably not my sincere words, these are possible results, but not the motivation for wanting to take a vacation. Actually, I didn't even bother to think about what I was going to do during the holidays, I just wanted to suspend production.
If taking time off is a right, and there is a consensus that the right to take leave is guaranteed, where is there so much need for explanation.
Stills from "Hometown, Don't Come Unharmed".
In fact, looking at flexible leave today, the doubts are no longer as fierce as in the first five years, the times have changed, and many concepts have loosened and changed.
Just like in 2023, a female worker took her employer to court and demanded overtime pay. The judge of the second instance found that although she did not work at the company's site, she provided substantive work content during non-working hours, which should be regarded as overtime work and ruled that the employer should pay the corresponding overtime pay. This "first case of invisible overtime" was also included in the work reports of the Beijing Municipal High Court and the Supreme People's Court, and became a landmark case in promoting the process of rule of law.
Consciously paying overtime pay and promoting the popularization of paid annual leave and flexible leave may require the right time to pay attention to it and slowly move forward, but just like the reply Hu Ping received when he submitted a report on "shortening working hours and implementing a five-day work week": You are like boiling a pot of water, which will be drunk sooner or later.
The pictures in the article are partly from Visual China and partly from the Internet
Author | Lu Ming
Editor-in-Chief on Duty | Huang Mingting
Edit | to the by
Typography | Fifi