Recently, the implementation of "dysmenorrhea leave" in Yunnan has attracted widespread attention in society. The "Special Regulations on Labor Protection of Female Employees in Yunnan Province" clarify that starting from November 1, female employees with severe dysmenorrhea can take 1 to 2 days off during their menstrual periods after being diagnosed by a medical or maternal and child health care institution.

"Dysmenorrhea leave" is not the first in Yunnan. A recent investigation by a reporter from Rule of Law Daily found that even though some places have passed administrative regulations to stipulate "dysmenorrhea leave", many local workers still report that this regulation "remains on paper." In addition to "dysmenorrhea leave", laws and regulations and some places also clearly stipulate family leave, nursing leave, parental leave, etc. In practice, there are also difficulties in implementing it.

On the one hand, laws and regulations reaffirm and further clarify the rights to rest and vacation that workers can enjoy in accordance with the law. On the other hand, some holidays are always difficult to implement. How to allow workers to truly enjoy the vacation rights granted by law? How should relevant regulations be improved? The reporter launched an investigation and interview on this.

Treat it as personal leave and sick leave

There are many obstacles to taking dysmenorrhea leave

After Ms. Tian, who is engaged in window service work at a bank in Shanxi, saw relevant news about Yunnan's "dysmenorrhea leave". After searching, she found out that Shanxi had similar regulations-according to the "Labor Protection Regulations of Shanxi Province for Female Employees", at my request, if a medical institution proves that she has dysmenorrhea or excessive menstruation, the employer should give one to two days rest.

However, when she tentatively asked her unit whether she could take "dysmenorrhea leave", the reply she received was "The nature of the job is not allowed" and "Is the dysmenorrhea that serious? I still need to take leave"?

"When dysmenorrhea is severe, it is really painful." Ms. Tian said that for many years, if she happened to catch her period on the day of work, she had to take pain medication two hours in advance to manage. If you take family leave procedures for approval due to severe dysmenorrhea, you will face problems such as shift change, deduction of full attendance, and performance bonuses.

The reporter reviewed relevant regulations in various places and found that at least 15 provinces across the country currently offer "dysmenorrhea leave" for all women. Some provinces have restricted the scope of application of "dysmenorrhea leave". For example, it is only applicable to female employees engaged in high-altitude, low-temperature, cold water, outdoor mobility and third-level physical labor intensity operations stipulated by the state; in some provinces,"dysmenorrhea leave" is aimed at all women, more detailed rest regulations have been proposed for women engaged in continuous standing labor.

"With the progress of the times, the scope of protection of workers 'rights and interests is also constantly expanding." Dysmenorrhea leave 'is increasingly written into local regulations, indicating that the need for pathological leave caused by dysmenorrhea, a physiological cause of women, has become a practical issue of concern to leave legislation, and it also reflects the important legislative purpose of my country's labor law for the protection of female employees." said Wu Wenfang, a professor at the School of Law of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics and an expert on the theory and labor relations think tank of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

However, the reporter interviewed many workers from the above-mentioned provinces that provide "dysmenorrhea leave" for all employees and found that "dysmenorrhea leave" has not been universally implemented. Some workers bluntly said that they had "never heard of it" and "didn't know there was such a leave"; some workers said that they did not dare to apply, and no one from their colleagues applied; when some workers applied for "dysmenorrhea leave", they were treated as personal leave or sick leave by the unit.

In addition, because some places require a hospital certificate for "dysmenorrhea leave", in practice, some people with dysmenorrhea are unable to go out to seek medical treatment to obtain a certificate, or have difficulty seeking medical treatment to prove that they have dysmenorrhea problems.

"I tried to apply for 'dysmenorrhea leave' once, and I will never take it again. I would rather die of pain at work." The reason why Ms. Mu, who works in Beijing, expresses such emotion is that although female employees in her company can take "menstrual vacation", they must provide certificates from a formal hospital. "Once, I finally walked to the hospital with heavy steps. After a preliminary examination, the doctor proposed to draw blood and do a B-ultrasound. It took me more than 300 yuan to issue a leave for a day."

During the interview, some interviewees raised such concerns: If "dysmenorrhea leave" is widely implemented, will it aggravate the gender shackles of women in the workplace?

Don't understand or dare not take a vacation

It is not easy to implement niche holidays

The reporter reviewed public information and found that in addition to "dysmenorrhea leave", laws, regulations and some places also clearly stipulate that there are "niche" holidays such as family leave, paternity leave, and parental leave. However, in practice, some workers have never heard of these holidays; Some employers have not implemented them at all; even if they can apply for relevant holidays, there are problems such as workers dare not mention them and employers have created obstacles to prevent them from taking leave due to various reasons.

Taking paternity leave as an example, all localities stipulate that male paternity leave ranging from 10 to 30 days (in some regulations, it is called nursing leave) in the family planning regulations, and it is also difficult to implement.

A year ago, Mr. Zhang, who worked in a company in Shandong, asked the company to take leave to take care of his wife because his wife was very weak during confinement and needed close care. Unexpectedly, the company's leaders first questioned the authenticity of the situation at home, and then said that the company was currently in the critical stage of the project and that as one of the core members, he could not leave at this time.

Although Mr. Zhang said that he could arrange work handover and even suggested that he could work remotely, the leaders still refused for various reasons. In the end, Mr. Zhang only took a few days of personal leave. While taking care of his wife, he had to worry about work matters, and he was exhausted physically and mentally.

Similar to paternity leave, in recent years, many places have introduced new policies to increase benefits such as childbirth and marriage leave, which clearly stipulates parental leave and nursing leave. For example, the People's Government of Tianjin City issued the "Implementation Measures on Marriage Leave, Childbirth Leave (Maternity Leave), Paternity Leave, Paternity Leave, Nursing Leave, and Other Holidays" stipulating that couples who have children in compliance with laws and regulations shall, while the child is under the age of 3, the employer shall grant both husband and wife 10 days of parental leave every year; If an elderly person over 60 years old is sick and hospitalized, the child's employer shall grant the only child a total of 20 days per year and the non-only child a total of 10 days per year. Nursing leave.

The reporter recently interviewed many workers working in Tianjin. They all said that their companies do not have parental leave or have never enjoyed parental leave or nursing leave.

Workers are blocked by employers when applying for leave rights that are clearly stipulated, which has caused many disputes.

On April 30 this year, the Intermediate People's Court of Dongguan city, Guangdong Province issued a labor dispute case. Employees have not been approved for parental leave due to hospitalization of children less than 6 months old at home, and have not been approved for personal leave. The company terminated the labor contract on the grounds that it was absent from work for three days, and was sentenced by the court to pay more than 220,000 yuan in compensation for illegal termination of the labor contract.

The Dongguan Intermediate People's Court pointed out in the judgment that Chen's application for parental leave on the grounds that his child was hospitalized for less than 6 months was not only in line with the provisions of the "Population and Family Planning Regulations of Guangdong Province", but also in line with the Chinese nation's traditional virtues of respecting the elderly and loving the young. When the leave was not approved, Chen changed it to personal leave according to the company's requirements. Although a technology company knew that Chen's child was hospitalized, it still treated Chen as absenteeism on the grounds that the leave did not meet the regulations. It was neither reasonable nor reasonable, so it made the above judgment.

Lack of implementation conditions mechanism

Improve legislation and clarify rules

Why are some holidays that are clearly stipulated and have laws to follow difficult to truly implement in practice?

Professor Qi of the School of Labor Economics of Capital University of Economics and Business pointed out that first, at the entire social level, the values and cultural atmosphere involving vacations still need to be optimized. From the perspective of employers, due to insufficient standardization and efficiency of management, they do not want or cannot allow employees to take vacations; from the perspective of workers, on the basis that the overall wage level needs to be improved, they pay less attention to their own rights, but pay more attention to wages and remuneration. In order to obtain higher wages and remuneration, they choose not to take vacations.

Second, at the legislative level, the rationality of cost sharing in some leave systems needs to be improved. Since most of the current vacations are borne by employers, some employers are reluctant to let employees take vacations.

Third, at the law enforcement level, the leave system is an integral part of the labor benchmark. Currently, supervision and law enforcement are relatively weak, and there is no way to truly prosecute violations of the law.

"One issue that needs to be discussed is, which level of laws and regulations should determine the setting of leave? If local legislation at any level can provide leave for workers, it means that labor relations rights and obligations can be arbitrarily adjusted by all levels of the government, which involves unreasonable interference in the employer's operations and management." Wu Wenfang said.

Lou Yu, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law and director of the Institute of Social Law, is concerned that local administrative regulations often adopt advocacy legislation, such as "encouraging employers" and "supporting establishment." They do not stipulate relevant rights, obligations and responsibilities, nor do they have specific implementation measures and rights protection measures.

"On the one hand, some rights and interests systems go beyond the current stage of social and economic development, lack implementation conditions and implementation mechanisms, and can easily become 'rights and interests on paper'. On the other hand, the realization of workers' rights and interests requires enterprises, trade unions and relevant social organizations., the country work together, each shoulder its responsibilities, and do a good job in connection and coordination. Simply relying on one party will increase its burden and will be difficult to work." Lou Yu said.

Wu Wenfang introduced that my country coexists two sets of leave systems: on the one hand, there are a large number of vacations such as family leave and marriage and funeral leave caused by the lack of flexibility in labor arrangements under the original planned economy; on the other hand, my country is carrying out labor market reform. After the reform, paid annual leave for enterprises began to be promoted. Paid annual leave in market economy countries is a universal holiday that allows the labor force to get a better rest or handle various personal affairs in a certain period, so various vacations are no longer established for reasons.

"For enterprises, there are many types of leave for workers, which may lead to a lack of willingness to cooperate. Therefore, in order to improve the implementation of workers 'leave, the two leave systems should be integrated and integrated, and strict law enforcement should be carried out on this basis. On the one hand, it prevents local policies from patching leave regulations, and on the other hand, it improves the actual effect of leave law enforcement." Wu Wenfang said.

In terms of scope, first of all, legislation should clarify the rules for relevant leave. For example, the regulations on "dysmenorrhea leave" vary from place to place, and should be clarified: First, the prerequisite for leave should be that dysmenorrhea causes you to be unable to work, and not just discomfort. A description of other symptoms; second, the leave procedures, that is, the leave process should be simplified on the basis of ensuring the authenticity of the leave; third, leave benefits. At present, some places stipulate that wages should be paid normally, while some places have unclear regulations, so suggestions should be unified and clear.

"Labor security supervision should be strengthened in law enforcement. Strengthen the legal publicity of the leave system, urge enterprises to implement the protection of workers 'right to leave, and investigate and deal with violations of the law. In addition, we should also conceptually guide companies and workers to re-understand the relationship between leave and work, and create a social atmosphere where leave is for better and longer working hours." Range says. (Reporter Sun Tianjiao)