The On/Off System

The matter of China's very complicated holiday schedule has been subject to much comment online recently, with the Peking Duck describing the whole system as a “complicated mess”. Essentially, it is being summed up as: one day off, three days on, three days off, six days on, seven days off, two days on, one day off. The weird layout of working and vacation days stems from the one week workers have off as part of the National Day celebrations, although they are required to work additional days in the preceding and succeeding weeks to make up for this (only three days are official holidays).

According to Chinese law, those who work during the holiday week (1st-7th October) are entitled to receive triple-time for statutory holidays, and double-time if they are working at the weekend. Recently, as reported by the China Daily, Beijing News conducted an online survey which found that over half of respondents had been required to work during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday period, but the majority had not yet received the overtime pay they are entitled too. The poll also revealed that most people work on one or two holiday days, but some industries (for example transportation and catering) see their employees having much less time off.

It seems that many employers are not meeting the state's requirements on overtime pay as they should be. Some Chinese analysts put this fact down to a lack of harsh penalties for those who underpay their workers, and also highlighted the reluctance amongst individuals to resort to legal mechanisms to force the issue. The same Beijing News survey found that only a small percentage of those polled take the issue of overtime up with their managers, preferring instead to “slack off at work” in order to make a point.