Parental leave often becomes a "paper holiday"? Another researcher calls for mandatory policy conditions | Maternity leave | Researchers

After a month, another article calling for mandatory implementation of parental leave was published in the theoretical section of China Population Daily.

"Currently, all provinces have established parental leave, but in practice, employees either face difficulties in applying for leave or are concerned that taking leave may affect their evaluation in the workplace, so they rarely apply for leave, resulting in parental leave often becoming 'paper leave'. Liao Min from the Jiangxi Provincial Party School and Wang Ying from the Jiangxi Financial Holding Group stated in an article on June 19 that it is recommended to introduce 'mandatory' policies and implementation rules to strengthen supervision of the implementation of parental leave by employers, and also to avoid male sex 'selective leave' through strengthening publicity and guidance, improving system design, and other means.".

The article points out that in recent years, China's fertility level has continued to decline, and its influencing factors are multifaceted, including economic costs, workplace environment, educational pressure, employment expectations, and changes in social attitudes towards marriage and childbirth. These practical problems collectively lead to the reluctance, reluctance, and inability of the appropriate age group to have children. Building a fertility friendly society is a systematic project that covers social security, employment, housing, education, healthcare, and elderly care. It must adhere to systematic thinking, focus on top-level design, and overall planning.

Therefore, the author of the article puts forward suggestions from four perspectives: increasing fertility benefits, creating a female friendly employment environment, reducing the burden of family upbringing education, and cultivating a new era of marriage and childbirth culture.

For example, some regions are currently exploring providing parenting subsidies to families who meet the policy of having a second and third child, in order to reduce the economic burden of family parenting. On the basis of summarizing the experiences of these regions, more eligible regions should be encouraged to provide parenting subsidies to eligible families in the future. At the same time, encourage and support regions with conditions to better integrate parental subsidy policies with maternity leave, spouse paternity leave, parental leave and other maternity leave systems;

Improve relevant legal systems, guide the shaping of a fair employment environment in society, and ensure that women are not discriminated against in various aspects such as job seeking, assessment, and promotion due to marriage and childbirth. At the same time, strengthen the supervision and management of law enforcement agencies, and strictly investigate and punish unfair phenomena in the employment process as a warning to others.

On May 19th, the theoretical edition of China Population Daily published an article by Chen Hong and Mi Hong titled "Analysis of the Current Situation and Influencing Factors of Parental Leave Implementation in China". The article proposes that the vitality of the policy lies in its implementation. It is recommended to enforce the parental leave policy and organically integrate the national fertility support policy, corporate social responsibility, and father's parenting responsibility. If a point system is adopted to track the implementation of parental leave by employers, preferential policies such as tax reduction and exemption will be given to enterprises with high points, and supervision will be strengthened for enterprises with low points. Drawing on the experience of developed countries such as Sweden, we will implement a quota system for parental leave and clarify that the "father quota" cannot be transferred. Enforce parental leave and paternity leave for fathers to avoid selective leave for men.

This article also mentioned that from the perspective of vacation duration, allowance standards, payment subjects, and vacation methods, the biggest shortcoming of China's parental leave policy is that the main payment subjects are employers. Therefore, it is recommended that the cost of parental leave be paid by the maternity insurance fund. The article states that China's basic medical insurance fund has accumulated a large surplus over the years, and the average proportion of people who enjoy maternity insurance benefits in the past decade is only 4.58% of the insured population. There is still significant room for growth in the number of insured individuals, so the sustainability of maternity insurance fund payments is guaranteed.

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about the implementation and cost sharing mechanism of parental leave.

Among them, the Half Month Talk article points out that from the current situation, many eligible couples dare not take or cannot take parental leave, and many employers also express difficulty in bearing the cost of leave. Firstly, the implementation rules for parental leave are not yet clear, and secondly, the mechanism for sharing labor costs during leave is not clear.

The article states that when it comes to parental leave, someone once joked, "Will I buy a Lamborghini with a 500 yuan coupon?" Experts interviewed believe that when formulating and implementing supporting policies to promote childbirth, represented by parental leave, attention should be paid to the complex connections between various policies and society, families, and individuals, while also considering the actual needs and affordability of the government, enterprises, families, and individuals.

In the process of practice, the Jiangsu Provincial Health Commission explained in October 2022 whether parental leave is mandatory, stating that employers should comply with relevant regulations on employee maternity leave and protect the rights and interests of employees during maternity leave. If an employer infringes on the rights and interests of employees related to maternity leave, employees can express their demands to social organizations such as trade unions and women's federations, or report and complain to the human resources department by calling the 12333 hotline or other means, or apply for mediation, arbitration or file a lawsuit with labor and personnel justice mediation and arbitration institutions or people's courts in accordance with the law. In December of the same year, the Tianjin Municipal Health Commission replied to a similar issue, stating that according to the latest Tianjin Population and Family Planning Regulations, parental leave is legal, meaning that employers cannot deprive employees of the right to take parental leave.