Experts believe that there are still a large number of people who are far away from their hometown to seek employment, and in some areas, there are still roads that are blocked or far away. The national provisions on home leave are still of practical significance.
"If you want to ask for home leave, the leader said that there is no such item in the unit's management measures, and also said that the document about home leave is too old to know whether it is being implemented." Recently, Ms. Zhang, who works in an administrative unit in Jingmen City, Hubei Province, told reporters that in September this year, she wanted to go back to Chongqing to visit her parents and intended to apply for home leave, but the unit leader refused with the above reasons.
According to the Provisions of the State Council on the Treatment of Employees' Home Visits (hereinafter referred to as the Provisions on Home Visits) issued and implemented in 1981, fixed employees who have worked in state organs, people's organizations, enterprises and institutions owned by the whole people for more than one year can enjoy the treatment of visiting parents and spouses if they meet the relevant conditions. In 2019, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security issued the "Standards on Statutory Holidays and Other Holidays", which also defined the five types of leave standards such as home leave.
The reporter learned that at present, many workers do not know about home leave, some know its existence but never take it, and some try to ask for home leave but are rejected by the employer. Can I take home leave or not? What are the practical challenges facing the application of the home leave regulations more than 40 years ago today? The reporter interviewed about it.
It is illegal to refuse to take a leave when the leave conditions are met
Ms. Zhang's workplace is more than 500 kilometers away from her home. Since there is no direct bus, it takes 89 hours to go home from her workplace. "It's not easy to go home once at ordinary times. After learning about the relevant provisions of home leave, I want to use the vacation to accompany my parents. Before I proposed the vacation, I specifically confirmed that it would not affect my work. Unexpectedly, the unit did not recognize this vacation."
According to the regulations on family visits, Ms. Zhang, as an unmarried employee, has a home leave of 20 days every year in principle. If the unit cannot give leave in the current year due to work needs, or if the employee voluntarily visits his/her family once every two years, he/she can be given leave once every two years, and the leave is 45 days. Married employees who visit their parents will be given a 20 day leave every 4 years.
Ren Guoyou, vice president and professor of the School of Safety Engineering of China Institute of Labor Relations, said in an interview with the Worker's Daily that home leave is a legal right stipulated by the state to properly solve the problem of home visits between employees and their relatives who have lived far away for a long time.
"Since the regulations on home leave have not been abolished, it is a typical violation of laws and regulations that employers fail to implement the relevant regulations on the grounds that there is no home leave in the unit management measures or that the national policy documents on home leave are too long." Ren Guoyou said that some employers may refuse the practical needs of special employees to return home for home visit out of economic interests, This is a manifestation of ignorance of the labor law or unwillingness to implement it, which should be corrected.
Lei Yongguo, a lawyer from Beijing Long'an (Chongqing) Law Firm, said that home leave has a clear scope of application. As long as the conditions for home leave are met, the unit should approve the leave but not approve it. There is indeed a legitimacy problem. "If the employer is a private enterprise or a private enterprise, there is no legitimacy problem for the unit not to approve home leave. The reason is that private enterprises or private enterprises themselves do not belong to the scope of home leave, unless of course there is a clear vacation system within the enterprise."
"Old regulations" need to keep up with new situations
Even if there are explicit provisions on home leave, many employees cannot take it in reality, because it "does not meet the document requirements". Mr. Tian, who worked in a public institution directly under the municipal government in Qinzhou, Guangxi, had such experience.
Before 2020, almost every employee of Mr. Tian's unit can enjoy home leave except his colleagues in the city. "You can take a leave after you have arranged your work. If you don't need to reimburse travel expenses, you can just write a leave request. If you need to reimburse round-trip expenses for a long journey, you can attach a copy of the relevant national regulations on home leave and the financial department's regulations on travel expenses for employees to visit their families to the end of the leave request."
According to the provisions of home visit regulations, if an employee visits his or her spouse, he or she will be given one home visit leave every year, which is 30 days. Mr. Tian said frankly that after working, he has been separated from his family for a long time. Every year, he points to this month's home leave to accompany his wife and children. Unexpectedly, after 2020, the unit will not allow him to take home leave.
"The reason given by the leader is that it does not meet the requirements of the document." Mr. Tian told reporters that one of the conditions for enjoying home leave is that employees do not live with their spouses, or do not live with their fathers and mothers, and they cannot be reunited on public holidays. "In many places, according to the Opinions on Several Issues Concerning the Formulation of Implementation Rules issued by the former State Administration of Labor It is clear that not being able to reunite on public holidays means not being able to stay at home for one night and rest for half a day on public holidays. Judging from the current domestic traffic development and the extension of public holidays, few people can meet this condition.
Ren Guoyou said that from the perspective of the development of modern means of transportation, it is true that fewer and fewer people can not reunite with their spouses or parents on public holidays, but there are still a large number of people who are far away from their hometown to find jobs, and there are still cases of impassable roads or long distances in some regions. The national regulations on home leave are still of practical significance. Therefore, relevant laws and regulations should be updated and improved in a timely manner according to the actual situation to provide clearer legal support for workers to take home leave.
Conflict between clauses and practice
Wang Tianyu, deputy director of the Social Law Office of the Law Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed that, with the gradual increase of the proportion of employed people absorbed by non-public enterprises in China, the working hour system has been adjusted from the original six days a week and one day off to five days and two days off. In 2008, China began to implement the regulations on paid annual leave for employees, and the public holidays have been extended, Great changes have also taken place in the means of transportation in recent years, while the provisions on home leave treatment have not changed since 1981, resulting in a major conflict between the provisions and practice.
In order to better implement home leave, Wang Tianyu suggested that the treatment of home leave should be taken as a social consideration as far as possible. For example, social support should be provided for the leave. The cost of the leave should be shared by the unit and employees. The state should also reduce or exempt the corresponding taxes or provide corresponding subsidies and subsidies.
Ren Guoyou believes that rest and vacation is a basic right granted by the state to employees, When amending the relevant labor laws, we can explore adding provisions that allow employees to choose by themselves. Employees who need to visit their families can continue to implement the provisions of home leave. Those who do not need to visit their families can receive economic compensation or be replaced with other rest time or holidays.
