Solving the "Required Questions" of Paid Vacation and Helping the Tourism Market to Restore and Develop-

How to break down the "barriers" that hinder workers from taking paid vacations, so that employees can take paid vacations conditionally and dare to take paid vacations? This is not only a "multiple choice question" for employers and employees, but also a "compulsory question" for the whole society.

Special commentator Ma Zhentao

The Report on the Implementation of the Plan for National Economic and Social Development in 20021and the Draft Plan for National Economic and Social Development in 2022 clearly puts forward "implementing the paid vacation system" when deploying the main tasks of the Plan for National Economic and Social Development in 2022. 2022 is the third year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, and the consumer services such as tourism and catering have been seriously affected. The author believes that in this context, the national document once again emphasizes the implementation of the paid vacation system, hoping to help the tourism market recover as soon as possible and stimulate domestic consumption.

Relevant research shows that paid vacation has a significant pulling effect on domestic tourism consumption and its sub-category consumption. Every time the number of paid vacations increases by 10%, personal travel consumption is expected to increase by 1.69%.

Paid vacation is a basic right enjoyed by workers. In 2008, China's "Regulations on Paid Vacation for Employees" formally proposed the paid vacation system, but it has not been fully implemented so far. In the process of implementing the system, there are both those who can't do it and those who dare not do it, and the implementation of the system between different regions, industries and units is very uneven and varies greatly. Why is this happening? How to break down the "barriers" that hinder workers from taking paid vacations, so that employees can take paid vacations conditionally and dare to take paid vacations? This is not only a "multiple choice question" for employers and employees, but also a "compulsory question" for the whole society. In this regard, the author combines the practice and research of paid vacation at home and abroad to talk about some views and suggestions:

First of all, we must persist in looking at problems from the perspective of development and solve problems in development. At present, China's goal of building a well-off society in an all-round way has been achieved, which has opened a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way. It is undeniable that many industries in China are not high in the global value chain division of labor, and the total factor productivity is relatively low; In the labor market, ordinary workers with average education and qualifications and limited technical ability account for the majority, and even some positions lack formal labor contracts, so it is difficult to guarantee the paid vacation system for employees.

Practice shows that low-cost, extensive and primitive employment methods and management methods are difficult to support the effective implementation of paid vacation and other systems. The countries that have implemented the paid vacation system well in the world belong to the developed countries with small population and high per capita output. To ensure the implementation of paid vacation, we should consider the macroeconomic environment and the overall situation of the labor market as a whole, step by step, and we should not rush into it, let alone "across the board"

For China, a country with a large population, high employment pressure and low per capita economic and social development level, only "persisting in development is the top priority of the party in governing and rejuvenating the country, persisting in taking economic construction as the center, and persisting in deepening reform and opening up", constantly improving the ability and level of scientific and technological innovation, constantly enhancing the endogenous development momentum, constantly promoting the reform of the income distribution system, and constantly narrowing the income gap between regions, between urban and rural areas, and between different industries and enterprises. Through full employment and high-quality development, the "plate" of economic aggregate can create relaxed conditions for completely solving the problem of system landing, including paid vacation.

Secondly, we should establish a positive incentive mechanism to support employees to take paid vacations. In reality, most of the work of many units represented by highly market-oriented enterprises is "a radish and a pit". Large-scale and relatively frequent paid vacations have a great impact on its orderly operation and a heavy burden, which is easy to form a "negative incentive" that does not encourage employees to take paid vacations. To reverse this dilemma, we can't pin all our hopes on the kindness of the "boss" and "pass on" the cost to the enterprise.

The author suggests that human resources and social security departments, trade union organizations, national tax departments and other government departments need to work together to introduce a "package" of innovative policies and mechanisms for paid vacation policies, such as giving enterprises necessary subsidies, tax cuts and other preferential measures to support employees' paid vacations, or forcing employers to pay cash subsidies to employees who do not take vacations, guiding enterprises to encourage employees to take vacations in disguise, and forming a positive incentive mechanism for paid vacations. For workers, we can also encourage more employees to respond positively and exercise the right of paid vacation by conditionally issuing "peak-shifting" coupons and travel subsidies.

Finally, further improve legislation and strengthen publicity and supervision. It is suggested that the regulations on paid annual leave for employees should be revised in time at the national level to concretize some vague regulations; Constantly improve the legal provisions of the paid vacation system in the Labor Contract Law, clarify the specific content of the protection of paid vacation rights, strengthen the relief for the infringement of paid vacation rights, and formulate practical implementation rules to make the paid vacation system more operable; Take various measures at the same time, increase the propaganda of paid vacation, make workers realize that paid vacation is one of their basic rights, and make this system become social consciousness; It is necessary to form a joint force, give full play to the internal and external supervisory role of social organizations, people's organizations and unit trade unions in paid vacations, and urge more units to implement the paid vacation system.