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✪ chen xiaohan, xing zhanjun

shandong university

[introduction] the national day holiday is approaching. in order to make up for the 7-day holiday, i will take a day off from work today (september 29). in recent years, holiday compensation has often been at the forefront of public opinion. more and more people hope to replace the compensation system with paid annual leave and flexible leave. in fact, the holiday break began in 1999 and has been with the chinese people for 25 years. looking back on the past, how did our country’s vacation system develop to what it is today? what problems are we facing now?

this article focuses on the evolution of my country’s vacation system.from the early days of the founding of the people's republic of china to the end of the 20th century, the practice of "single days off" and statutory annual holidays were designed to protect employees' right to vacation. with the improvement of production efficiency and the development of the cultural tourism industry, our country has implemented "double holidays" and has extended holidays on may day, national day, and the spring festival through adjusted holidays. faced with the pressure of intensive vacations during the "golden week", the vacation system is committed to realizing the protection function, economic function and spiritual and cultural function by adding traditional holiday holidays and launching paid annual leave.the problems with the current leave system are as follows:: the guarantee function of the vacation system has not been fully realized; the vacation structure needs to be optimized, and the economic function of the vacation system has not been fully exerted; the economic value of holidays has been excessively pursued, and the spiritual and cultural functions of the vacation system have been ignored. andin a highly competitive labor environment, there are more games between employees and employers, and the erosion of trust makes it easier to create conflicts over vacations. some employees have more needs for vacations, but others actively sacrifice vacations for income, making the vacation issue more complicated.

the author points out,optimizing and reforming the vacation system should: (1) fully implement the paid annual leave system, cancel the provisions of salary compensation for annual leave and employees voluntarily giving up annual leave, and realize compulsory leave; (2) take into account the unbalanced distribution of statutory annual holidays throughout the year , the victory day of the anti-japanese war and the chinese valentine's day can be added as legal annual holidays; (3) cancel the paid leave and encourage flexible leave; (4) guide people to establish a scientific concept of labor and leisure, and realize that work is not only about pressure, nor is life. there is only work.

this article was originally published in the 2023 issue 9 of "nanjing social sciences" and was originally titled "the evolution, dilemma and optimization of my country's leave system".represents the author's views only and is for readers' reference only.

the evolution, dilemma and optimization of my country's vacation system

the vacation system is an important institutional arrangement to ensure employees’ vacation time.at present, our country has formed a vacation system consisting of 2 days of rest days per week, 11 days of statutory annual holidays, and 5-15 days of paid annual leave. the total annual vacation length reaches 120-130 days.however, except for statutory annual holidays, everyone can basically take vacations. rest days and paid annual vacations have not been well implemented.

in july 2023, the general office of the state council forwarded the national development and reform commission's "notice on measures to restore and expand consumption," which proposed "comprehensively implement the paid leave system, encourage staggered vacations, and flexible work and rest" which triggered heated discussions.in recent years, relevant departments have repeatedly encouraged and guided local governments to formulate implementation measures for paid annual leave, and have also put forward many exploratory plans for the arrangement of rest days and statutory annual holidays. however, the leave system has always been difficult to implement.as people's demand for vacations continues to increase, how to simultaneously improve the scientificity and effectiveness of the vacation system has become an urgent research topic.

▍the functions of the vacation system and the historical evolution of my country’s vacation system

vacation is not only important for individual labor recovery, social integration and self-development, but also plays an important role in the economic and cultural construction of society as a whole. individually, workers take vacations to rest and relax, integrate into their families and have social interactions, and can use their vacation time to better develop and realize themselves. as for society as a whole, on the one hand, people can use holidays to enjoy leisure life, travel and shop, thus promoting leisure consumption; on the other hand, traditional festivals are emotional identities formed by the long-term accumulation of a country or nation's history and culture. national remembrance days have the important significance of remembering history, remembering martyrs, and creating a future. setting traditional festivals and national remembrance days as legal annual holidays can promote national culture and strengthen national identity and national unity.

the dual value of leave determines that the leave system must not only have the function of protecting rights, but also have economic and spiritual and cultural functions. specifically, first, the vacation system can exert its protective function by ensuring that all citizens enjoy the right to vacation; second, the vacation system can guide the healthy development of the leisure economy through reasonable institutional arrangements to exert its economic function; third, the vacation system can enhance national cultural identity and national cohesion by setting traditional festivals and national anniversaries as legal annual holidays, so as to exert its spiritual and cultural functions. in the practice of establishing and improving the vacation system in our country, three system functions have been realized one after another.

(1) rest days and statutory annual holidays: realizing the guarantee function of the vacation system

the vacation system initially established in our country mainly includes rest days and statutory annual holidays.at the beginning of the founding of new china, our country did not have clear legal provisions on rest days. the "common program of the chinese people's political consultative conference" adopted in 1949 only stipulated that companies and enterprises generally implement an eight-hour to ten-hour work system, and did not stipulate rest days. , but people generally work six days a week and have sunday off, and the "single day off" system continues and spreads. legal annual holidays are clearly stipulatedin 1949, the government affairs council promulgated the "regulations on national holidays and memorial days", which stipulated four holidays: spring festival, national day, may day, and new year's day, including a three-day holiday for the spring festival, a two-day holiday for national day, and a one-day holiday for may day and new year's day.

in addition to rest days and holidays, my country also has special leave arrangements such as annual leave and summer vacation. however, these leave arrangements cannot be implemented uniformly and continuously, and most of them are only for state agency staff or employees in special types of work. overall, the tradition of statutory annual holidays and "solo days" formed the basic framework of my country's vacation system from the early days of the founding of the people's republic of china to the end of the 20th century. although the vacation arrangements were relatively simple and of low standards, they were in line with the social development stage at that time and at the level of productivity. against the background of low economic growth and severe domestic and international situations, people are generally highly motivated to work and have little awareness of leisure. overtime is the norm for workers. the arrangement of rest days and statutory annual holidays has fulfilled the function of protecting employees' vacation rights.

(2) from "double holidays" to "golden week" long holidays: focus on giving full play to the economic function of the vacation system

after the reform and opening up, production methods and production relations have changed, and production efficiency has improved, creating conditions for increasing vacation time. in addition, as the degree of opening up to the outside world continues to deepen, our country has integrated into the wave of economic globalization, and the relatively consistent weekly work and rest schedules of various countries have also had an important impact on our country's vacation system. based on the above factors, the country began to consider raising the standards for rest days. in 1986, the former china science and technology for development research center conducted a study on "the problem of shortening working hours in my country" and conducted sample surveys in thousands of industrial and commercial enterprises across the country. the study found that my country now has the ability to gradually implement the five-day working hours. the conditions for the work system and the implementation of the five-day work system are beneficial to the development of our country's economy and society. this research result has laid the foundation for the formal implementation of the "five-day work system" in our country.february 1994, the state council issued the "state council regulations on employees' working hours", of which article 3 stipulates that "employees work 8 hours a day and 44 hours a week."my country has begun to implement the "big and small weeks" rest day system, that is, 2 days of rest in "big week" and 1 day of rest in "small week". one year later, the state council revised the "state council regulations on employees' working hours", stipulating that "employees should work 8 hours a day and 40 hours a week."the "double holiday system" has been officially implemented since may 1, 1995.。

the "double break system" not only directly improves people's leisure welfare, but also helps save production resources and improve labor efficiency. more importantly, the two days off per week directly promote the vigorous development of the cultural tourism industry, and tourism has gradually become a new national demand and an important economic growth point.

in order to better meet the cultural, entertainment and tourism needs of residents, and also to use the cultural and tourism economy as the engine to stimulate overall economic development,in 1999, the state council revised the "national festival and anniversary holiday measures", increasing the national day and may day holidays to 3 days. including the spring festival, there are three short holidays. by adjusting the leave, the short holidays can be combined with the two weekends before and after. forming a 7-day long holiday, namely "golden week". the "golden week" stimulated the national tourism craze and gave full play to the economic function of vacation. the holiday economy entered a period of explosive development, effectively driving the development of related regions and related industries, promoting the adjustment and optimization of my country's industrial structure, and bringing about a series of positive effects. effect. but"golden week" has also produced many negative impacts. the most fundamental problem lies in the concentration of tourism during "golden week", causing huge pressure on resources, the environment, public facilities and public services. the shortage of tourism products has led to a decline in the quality of tourism supply, which has brought bad experiences to people when traveling. the actual effect of surprise tourism consumption on economic growth has also been questioned. in the long run, "golden week" is the transitional and primary form of vacation tourism. the holiday economy's over-reliance on "golden week" is not conducive to the economic function of the vacation system. reform of the vacation system is imperative.

(3) from traditional holiday holidays to paid annual leave: taking into account the security function, economic function and spiritual and cultural function

as national tourism awareness increases and a series of problems caused by the "golden week" continue to emerge, the reform of the "golden week" is put on the agenda.in 2007, the state council once again revised the "national holidays and anniversary holiday measures", shortening the may day holiday to one day, and adding three traditional festivals, qingming festival, dragon boat festival, and mid-autumn festival, with one day off for each holiday. as a result, the seven-day long vacation was reduced from the original three to two, and with the help of compensated leave, three short long vacations were added, which alleviated the pressure caused by the concentrated vacation during the "golden week".at the same time, the addition of traditional festivals as legal annual holidays has given full play to the spiritual and cultural functions of the vacation system, promoted traditional culture and enhanced national identity.

at the same time, the paid annual leave system is also constantly improving. the paid annual leave has flexible leave time. while protecting employees' right to rest and leave, it can also well deal with social problems caused by concentrated leave and take into account the benefits of the leave system. protection function and economic function. the specific implementation measures for paid annual leave were formed in 2007, in sync with the "golden week" reforms, but in fact, my country's relevant regulations on the paid annual leave system can be traced back to the early days of the founding of the people's republic of china.1952yearthe "notice on interim provisions on the leave system for staff of people's governments at all levels" issued by the government affairs council contains provisions on paid annual leave, but it has not been continuously implemented due to various reasons. since then, although the country has not unified regulations on paid annual leave, a few departments and industries have formulated implementation plans for paid annual leave.1985the "recommendations of the central committee of the communist party of china on formulating the seventh five-year plan for national economic and social development" proposed to "gradually establish an employee leave system." under its guidance, some places have introduced paid annual leave measures.1991, the central committee of the communist party of china and the state council issued the "notice on employees' leave issues", stipulating that employees can enjoy paid annual leave of no more than two weeks depending on different circumstances;1994the standing committee of the national people's congress promulgated the labor law, in which article 45 stipulates that the state implements a paid annual leave system, but neither of them has specific implementation rules for paid annual leave.2007on december 7, the state council passed the "regulations on paid annual leave for employees" (hereinafter referred to as the "regulations"), which stipulates that employees can enjoy paid annual leave starting from january 1, 2008, and stipulates in detail the leave for employees with different working ages. duration;2008, the ministry of personnel and the ministry of human resources and social security respectively passed the "implementation measures for paid annual leave for staff of government institutions and institutions" and the "implementation measures for paid annual leave for enterprise employees". so far, our country has basically formed a more specific and unified paid annual leave system.

the construction and improvement of the paid annual leave system has further optimized the leave structure. it is not only a response to a series of problems caused by the "golden week", but also a response to people's growing demand for high-quality leisure life, taking into account the guarantee function of the leave system. and economic functions. however, although the "regulations" stipulates the detailed rules for the implementation of paid annual leave, it cannot ensure that all employees enjoy annual leave. article 5 of the "regulations" stipulates:"if the unit is indeed unable to arrange for employees to take annual leave due to work needs, it may not arrange for employees to take annual leave with the employee's consent. the unit shall pay 300% of the employee's daily salary income for the number of days of annual leave that the employee should take but has not taken. annual vacation pay.”this provision provides more flexible options for employers who have difficulty in implementing paid annual leave, especially some medium, small, and micro enterprises, which is in line with my country's development stage at that time, but it also makes it difficult to obtain a paid annual leave system. to fully implement the system, the government has issued documents many times to promote the implementation of the system. in 2009, the state council's "opinions on accelerating the development of tourism" mentioned the implementation of a paid leave system; in 2012, the implementation of paid leave was written into the government work report for the first time; in 2013, the "national leisure tourism outline" proposed that by 2020, employees will take the annual paid leave system has been basically implemented. in 2015, the general office of the state council's "several opinions on further promoting tourism investment and consumption" focused on optimizing leave arrangements. since then, the government has begun to encourage and promote local governments to formulate and implement specific measures for paid annual leave. in december 2016, the state council issued the "thirteenth five-year plan for tourism development" proposed that the implementation of the paid leave system for employees should be included in the agenda of local governments, formulate implementation details or plans for the paid leave system, and strengthen supervision and inspection; the "14th five-year plan" in 2021 the "tourism development plan" also proposed to promote the formulation and implementation of specific measures for paid annual leave in all regions; in july 2023, the national development and reform commission's "notice on measures to restore and expand consumption" proposed to fully implement the paid leave system and encourage the wrong peak vacation and flexible schedule.

overall, the evolution of my country's vacation system is in line with the economic and social development conditions at different stages. it has achieved a transformation from solely realizing the security function, to focusing on the economic function, to taking into account the security function, economic function and spiritual and cultural function. in practice, the relationship between centralized vacation and decentralized vacation has been improved, and a relatively reasonable vacation structure has been formed. however,the supply and demand sides of vacation are the employer and the employee respectively, and their positions on the vacation issue are not completely consistent. as far as policy makers are concerned, they must not only consider the issue of excessively high vacation standards that damage production efficiency, but also consider the issue of vacation. it plays an important role in the development of the leisure economy and the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure, which means that the implementation and reform of the vacation system faces considerable challenges.。

▍the main problems of my country’s vacation system and the practical dilemmas caused by uncertainty

overall, the problems with my country’s vacation system at this stage are mainly reflected in the following three aspects.

first, due to incomplete laws and regulations and inadequate implementation of the system, the guarantee function of the vacation system has not been fully realized. the legal status of paid annual leave and statutory annual holidays is low, and the legal responsibilities are incomplete; the standard working hours of 40 hours per week does not originate from the "labor law", but from the "regulations of the state council on employees' working hours", " there is no legal basis for "double holidays". it can be seen that the current legal definition of working hours and rest times is not clear; in addition, the relevant regulations of the existing leave system lack supporting legislative measures, and supervision and inspection are weak. all the above factors lead tothe implementation of the leave system is difficult. the "double break" as the basis of the leave system has not yet been fully implemented, and paid annual leave has not been fully implemented., according to the 2020 online questionnaire survey by the china youth daily social survey center, 27.1% of the respondents clearly stated that employers cannot implement paid annual leave. the vacation system cannot be fully implemented, and its protection function is greatly reduced.

second, the vacation structure needs to be optimized, and the economic function of the vacation system has not been fully realized. after the implementation of "double holidays",the total number of vacation days in our country has been in line with the international advanced level, but the number of statutory annual holidays and paid annual vacation days, which bear the main cultural and tourism needs, is not large., there are 11 statutory annual holidays in total, and the distribution in the upper and lower half-years is not even enough; in terms of paid annual leave, only employees with more than 20 years of service can enjoy 15 days of leave. faced with residents' growing need for vacations and the huge development potential of the cultural and tourism industry, relevant departments have tried to improve vacation standards. in addition to encouraging local governments to introduce specific measures for paid annual leave, they have also brewed some plans to extend vacation time, such as sparking heated discussions these plans provide a basis for some places to flexibly formulate leave standards and provide possible reform directions for the leave system. however, they lack specific implementation methods and are difficult to fully implement in enterprises. overall, the current vacation situation cannot match people's cultural and entertainment travel needs. the cultural and tourism market still has huge potential, and the economic function of the vacation system has not been fully utilized.

third, the economic value of holidays is excessively pursued, and the spiritual and cultural functions of the holiday system are ignored. the three traditional festivals of tomb sweeping day, dragon boat festival and mid-autumn festival only have one day of holiday. in order to ensure that field workers can return home and reunite with their families, usuallyuse the rest time on weekends to form a short length by adjusting the time offat the same time, it also provides convenience for people to travel during holidays; as an important national anniversary, the national day is also the peak season and peak of tourism. usuallymake up a long vacation by taking time offto encourage the public to travel, travel and consume.traditional festivals and national commemorations of japan are important holiday arrangements that arouse people's national cultural emotions and enhance national cohesion. however, the pursuit of the economic value of holidays reflected behind the holiday has submerged its spiritual and cultural functions.

the problems existing in the protection function, economic function and cultural function of the vacation system are progressive.the security function is the most fundamental function of the leave system. the incomplete leave security affects the performance of economic and cultural functions, and the ineffective performance of economic functions further affects the performance of cultural functions. therefore,the root of the problem lies in the protection function. the most direct and fundamental solution should be to fully implement rest days and paid annual leave.. however, the implementation of the leave system has been delayed again and again, and the problem has never been fundamentally solved.the difficulty in implementing and reforming the vacation system is not only a game between various vacation-related participants for their respective interests, but also deeply reflects the practical dilemma brought about by the changes in my country's social structure.

the world today is undergoing major changes unseen in a century, and our country is in a new stage of development in comprehensively building a modern socialist country. the development environment is facing profound and complex changes, instability and uncertainty have increased significantly, and the reform of the vacation system is also in uncertainty. in the development environment, there are more complex and changeable uncertain factors such as working time and working space, social relations in the labor field, employees' vacation needs and behavioral choices, etc.only by deeply understanding the concept of uncertainty and its impact on social development can we understand the practical difficulties faced by the implementation and reform of the leave system.

the concept of "uncertainty" includes three levels of uncertainty: uncertainty at the ontological level, uncertainty at the epistemological level, and uncertainty at the methodological level. it is the core property of risk, but compared with risk, uncertainty it is immeasurable.uncertainty has existed for a long time, and the modernization process has released uncertain factors in social development. due to the "fracture" characteristics of modernity, this release is irreversible. today's society is moving from a "risk society" to an "uncertainty society". society” transformation.after entering a new stage of development, uncertainty has become a new normal in chinese society. its characteristics are mainly reflected in many aspects such as development methods, development environment, and development subjects. "tradition" is no longer here, and it is urgent to actively deal with uncertainty. realistic demands. as far as the leave system is concerned,uncertainty in the development method means uncertainty in the production method, which in turn causes uncertainty in labor time and labor space; uncertainty in the development environment means uncertainty in the social environment, and the attenuation of trust between people causes labor the uncertainty of social relations in the field; the uncertainty of the development subject, that is, the uncertainty of the objective individual development encounters and subjective self-perception of individual workers. the three factors work together to make the vacation system face triple practical dilemmas.specifically, the first is the situational dilemma caused by the uncertainty of labor time and labor space; the second is the structural dilemma caused by the uncertainty of social relations in the labor field; the third is the relationship between individual development and self. individual dilemmas caused by cognitive uncertainty.

(1) situational dilemmas caused by uncertainty in working time and working space

the labor situation can be split into two dimensions: time and space. when my country's vacation system was born, the industrial structure was simple, personnel mobility was small, employees' working space and working time were relatively fixed, and vacation arrangements faced few uncertainties. with the development of informatization and modernization, in the time dimension,as the industrial structure continues to transform and upgrade, the changes in labor forms and methods continue to intensify, and working time gradually becomes fragmented and loose.;in the spatial dimension,as the relationship between urban and rural areas changes from separation to integration, coupled with the advancement of information and communication technology and the leap-forward development of transportation, a complex population flow situation and huge regional differences in employment have formed. the labor space presents a blend of virtuality and reality, and the coexistence of concentration and decentralization. complex situation. the uncertainty of working time and working space has given rise to diversified vacation needs, which also makes the vacation system have to face complex working time and labor space situations, increasing the difficulty of reforming the vacation system.

(2) structural dilemmas caused by uncertainty in social relations in the labor field

with the rapid growth of the economy, my country's labor market has undergone profound changes, the labor structure has changed, the demographic dividend has gradually disappeared, the aging problem has emerged, the scale of labor supply has shrunk, and the quality of supply needs to be improved; policy adjustments such as the expansion of college enrollment have caused college graduates to employment pressure continues to rise, and workers' skill levels lag behind job demands, resulting in an imbalance between labor supply and demand. the rapid development of artificial intelligence has added more uncertainties to the labor market. in the future, the labor market will face a more intense competitive environment, and employees will face a greater risk of unemployment.in a highly competitive labor environment, there are more games between employees and employers, and between employees, and the dissolution of uncertainty in social "communication" and "trust" has aggravated the inconsistencies in social relations in the labor field. certainty, contradictions and conflicts are more likely to arise on the issue of vacation, and also put forward higher requirements for the standardization, scientificity and effectiveness of the leave system.

(3) individual dilemmas caused by uncertainty in individual development and self-perception

in an era of uncertainty, employees' individual development and self-perception are full of uncertainty.as far as individual development is concerned, due to rising employment pressure and the emergence of new employment forms, their professional identity, development opportunities, labor protection, etc. are full of uncertainties, resulting inas wages increase and the cultural and tourism environment improves, more demand for vacations is generated. at the same time, people are willing to actively sacrifice vacations in exchange for income due to pressures such as unemployment and workplace competition, making vacation behavior more complex. in terms of self-perception, social transformation has affected and shaped people's living conditions. the uncertainty of "people" in today's society has reached its peak in history. people's self-perception, psychological emotions, and daily behaviors are also full of uncertainties. , people's work-leisure values ​​inevitably tend to diverge. "involution" and "lying flat", "hard work and dedication" and "poetry and distance" coexist. they all have reasonable value foundations and are accepted by society at the same time. these uncertainties make employees' vacation needs diverse and complex, posing challenges to the implementation and reform of the vacation system.

the three dilemmas are also intertwined and influence each other. first of all, situational dilemmas intensify structural dilemmas and individual dilemmas. specifically, the uncertainty of labor time and labor space may lead to communication and trust problems, which in turn affects the uncertainty of social relations in the labor field. at the same time, the uncertainty of working time and working space will also directly affect individual development, changing people's cognitive methods, thereby exacerbating the uncertainty of individual development and self-perception; in addition, structural dilemmas will also exacerbate individual dilemmas, specifically, the uncertainty of social relations in the labor field affects individual development encounters and self-perception, thereby exacerbating their uncertainty. situational dilemmas, structural dilemmas, and individual dilemmas are intertwined, bringing tremendous pressure to the implementation and reform of the leave system. in addition to dealing with external uncertainties, in actual practice, governance entities also need to deal with internal self-generated uncertainties, which undoubtedly further increases the difficulty of system implementation and system reform. the most prominent problems in the leave system are rough legislation and lack of the operational problem is precisely the use of policy ambiguity to deal with uncertainty. policy ambiguity itself brings more uncertainties to the practice of leave, making the implementation and reform of the leave system more difficult. however, difficulties do not mean stagnation. in the future, people will have more and more demands for vacations. upgrading the cultural tourism industry and releasing new economic vitality have become new development trends. in recent years, the state has intensively provided guidance on the implementation and reform of the vacation system, and the reform of the vacation system is already on the horizon.

▍thoughts on the path of reform and optimization of my country’s vacation system

the reform of the leave system in the new stage of development requires a break from traditional deterministic thinking.the deterministic response strategy is to improve leave standards and implement compulsory leave, to eliminate uncertainty with certainty, but as mentioned above, unified and detailed leave regulations at the national level cannot take into account various uncertain factors, and the stability principle of the system is also contrary to the uncertainty of the development environment. to cope with the uncertain development environment, we need to establish a more open mind and make "uncertain responses" to various uncertain factors. therefore,optimization measures for the leave system should be more "resilient", with the ultimate goal of achieving higher quality social development and realizing the all-round development of people,while improving employee vacation benefits, we should seize the economic development opportunities that come with risks amid uncertainty and better realize the three major functions of the vacation system.

specifically,as far as the protection function of the leave system is concerned, implementing the vacation system and giving full play to the protection function are the most urgent tasks at present.the paid annual leave system should be used as a breakthrough to gradually and comprehensively implement basic leave standards, effectively protect workers’ right to vacation;in terms of the economic function of the vacation system, my country’s existing leave standards are not low, and the focus of system reform should be on optimizing the system structure.while implementing paid annual leave, we must grasp the relationship between concentrated holidays and dispersed annual leave. as for higher-level leave standards, we can leave it to the market to determine the incentive effect of leave.；in terms of the spiritual and cultural functions of the vacation system,cancancel the holiday break and add traditional festivals and important national anniversaries as legal holidays, fully stimulate the cultural vitality of traditional festivals, strengthen value guidance, and enhance cultural confidence and national cohesion. based on this, the following thoughts on the reform and optimization of the vacation system are proposed.

(1) fully implement the paid annual leave system

in 1995, our country began to implement the "double-break system" after the promulgation of the "regulations of the state council on employees' working hours", and paid annual leave was only officially implemented after the promulgation of the "regulations on employees' paid annual leave" in 2007. when implementing the vacation system, "double breaks" are naturally regarded as the primary goal. however, in comparison, there are about 104 days of rest days per year, but only 5-15 days of paid annual leave. there is little resistance to implementation, and the paid annual leave is flexible and can better cope with the current uncertain development environment and meet the needs of the current development environment. diverse vacation needs of employees. therefore, paid annual leave should be used as a breakthrough for the implementation of the vacation system. the paid annual leave system should be implemented first, and then as the economic level improves and people's awareness of vacation increases, the "double vacation" will be gradually implemented.

the key to implementing the paid annual leave system is to cancel the salary compensation annual leave and the provisions of employees voluntarily giving up annual leave, and realize compulsory leave.the provisions on wage compensation and voluntary relinquishment of leave originate from the "regulations on employees' paid annual leave". these two provisions not only make the nature of paid annual leave an "employee benefit" rather than an inviolable right, but also provide opportunities for employers to ignoring employees' annual leave provides possibilities and space. only by canceling these two provisions can we better convey the determination of compulsory leave to the society, provide a legal basis for judicial interpretation, and effectively promote the implementation of paid annual leave. in addition, the paid annual leave system should also stipulate that respecting the wishes of employees should be the primary principle in determining annual leave arrangements. specifically, the arrangement of paid annual leave is mainly for employees, and employees must submit their vacation plans to the employer in advance. when determining annual leave arrangements, employees' wishes should be given priority. employees should not be forced to take annual leave at the same time as the unit to avoid the situation where the employer forces collective leave during the off-season. ensure that employees can arrange annual leave independently and lay the foundation for canceling paid leave.

(2) consider adding some traditional festivals and national anniversaries as legal annual holidays

from the perspective of system design,our country's current vacation system is complete and reasonably structured. however, in practice, the implementation of rest days and paid annual leave is insufficient, resulting in the system's function being overly dependent on statutory annual holidays.therefore, in the process of system optimization, on the basis of implementing paid annual leave, we should focus on the adjustment of the system structure, properly handle the relationship between statutory annual holidays and paid annual leave, and reduce the pressure on statutory annual holidays. compared with raising the standard of paid annual leave, adding statutory annual holidays is easier to solve the dilemma faced by the current leave system.first, although decentralized paid annual leave has many advantages, centralized statutory annual holidays are also irreplaceable. the rigid characteristics of centralized leave ensure that except for special types of work and special industries that must require working on holidays, all people can basically take leave, which provides a basis for create conditions for family travel together；second, traditional festivals and national anniversaries among legal annual holidays carry the function of inheriting the excellent national culture and have important spiritual and cultural functions.able；third, we cannot ignore the huge role of the holiday economy in stimulating consumption potential；fourth, compared with raising the standard of paid annual leave, the reform resistance to increasing statutory annual holidays is much smaller.. at present, a prominent problem of statutory annual holidays is the uneven distribution throughout the year. five of the seven statutory annual holidays are distributed in the first half of the year. therefore, it may be considered to add the chinese valentine's day and the victory day of the anti-japanese war as statutory annual holidays. the national day and the victory day of the anti-japanese war are both in the second half of the year. adding them as legal annual holidays can balance the distribution of holidays. in addition, adding the chinese valentine's day and the victory day of the anti-japanese war as legal annual holidays will help bring into play the spiritual and cultural functions of the holiday system. the chinese valentine's day holiday conforms to the trend of the times, is conducive to the integration of cultural connotation and the spirit of the times, and is also conducive to stimulating consumption potential. the anti-japanese war victory day is an important political holiday in the country and has strong political value. the holiday can guide people to remember history, honor the martyrs, not forget the national humiliation, and forge ahead.

(3) cancel paid leave and encourage flexible leave

the purpose of adjusting vacation is to combine short and long vacations to facilitate people's travel during holidays, but at the same time, it may disrupt people's normal work rhythm and bring many negative impacts.paid annual leave can fundamentally solve the problems caused by time off. after paid annual leave is fully implemented, employees can arrange paid annual leave to match holidays and short vacations to meet their personalized vacation needs.

in addition to paid annual leave, flexible leave can also replace the function of paid leave.the "measures on restoring and expanding consumption" issued by the national development and reform commission in july 2023 mentioned "encouraging off-peak vacations and flexible work and rest." the state encourages flexible vacations because of its unique advantages. first, flexible vacations can better adapt to different work rhythms and meet people's needs for flexible vacation time. secondly, flexible vacations can reduce the pressure of concentrated travel and not only help people avoid traveling. the peak creates conditions and improves people's travel and consumption experience. it also disperses the pressure of concentrated passenger flow in scenic spots and business districts, which is conducive to a more stable and orderly operation of the cultural tourism market and gives full play to the economic function of the vacation system; in addition, flexible vacation it can also better adapt to the uncertain development environment, provide employers and employees with greater room for choice, and effectively cope with situational dilemmas caused by uncertainty in labor time and space. in order to better encourage the implementation of the flexible leave system, the specific implementation methods of off-peak leave and flexible leave in some places and enterprises can be selected as typical cases to explore the rationality of their implementation plans and provide experience reference for other places and enterprises. society has created an atmosphere that encourages flexible vacations.

(4) guide people to correctly understand vacations and establish a scientific concept of labor and leisure

with economic development and social progress, people's need for a better leisure life is growing day by day. however, our country has a glorious tradition of labor. people generally value work more than leisure. in the workplace, there are still many employees who sacrifice their vacation time to gain bosses. appreciation and overtime wages. therefore, it is necessary to guide people to form a correct labor-leisure concept.

the guidance of ideas cannot only be achieved through the promotion of opinions, but also through specific policies to convey and guide values, and then guide the formation of good social trends. the current policy of free highways and free large-scale cultural and natural scenic spots on holidays has played such a role to a certain extent. the policy of free transportation and tickets encourages people to travel, which not only drives economic development, but also strengthens the concept of holiday tourism. of course, these policies mainly consider tourism travel, with the aim of “promoting business through tourism”. in order to better realize the value-leading role, the policy of free subways and buses on weekends can be implemented to encourage people to go out of the house and go to nature on rest days, and at the same time, the concept of weekend rest can be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. in addition, we can encourage people to spend holidays with their families and promote family happiness by encouraging the launch of high-speed rail and high-speed train family discount packages on weekends and holidays.policies such as free or discounted public transportation on weekends and holidays may seem simple, but these policies are essential both in the present and in the long term. we live in an era of uncertainty, and increasingly fierce competition is an inevitable trend. perhaps what we really need to worry about in the future is not that there are too few statutory vacation times, but that people prefer not to take vacations due to work pressure.the goal of policies such as free highways on holidays and free public transportation on weekends is not only to stimulate the development of the cultural and tourism economy, but also to guide people to establish a scientific concept of labor and leisure. work is not just about pressure, and life is not just about work. people can be at work you can achieve your life goals and self-worth while on vacation, and you can also enjoy a wonderful leisure life during your vacation.