Government introduces paid holidays in draft rules

China's employees might very soon get between five and fifteen extra paid holidays on top of the current compulsory holidays, says a draft proposal of the State Council, China's highest administrative organ. The proposal is out for comments until November 16, writes Xinhua news agency.
Employees would be eligible for fifteen holidays if they have been working for longer than ten years. The first year of employment would go without the extra holidays.

Employees who have worked from one to ten years would have five days paid vacation; those who have worked for ten to 20 years would have ten days; and those with more than 20 years 15 days. Legal holidays and weekends will not be included as paid vacation.

Now China has officially three three-day compulsory holidays, Spring festival, the May holiday and the October holiday, although leave during Spring festival could be longer. Teachers are excluded from the new proposal, since they have a three-month break each year anyway.

Update: The Shanghai Daily has, only a few days later, been reading a totally different draft.

The three-day May Day holiday will be cut to one day, while the Tomb-sweeping Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival will become national holidays, according to the draft, which was released by the central government's office in charge of national holidays. That would raise the number of paid holiday days to 11 days from the current 10 days.

Killing one of the golden weeks in exchange for three one-day national holidays and no individual holidays: that might spark off a fierce national debate.