I get a very useful monthly email update from Baker & McKenzie on legal issues in China and their latest version has some nice summarized info on various issues surrounding annual leave for Chinese employees.

For normal annual leave in China, Baker & McKenzie say:

For the first time, employees in the PRC are entitled to paid annual leave (i.e., vacation pay). Under regulations that came into effect on January 1, 2008, employees who have worked more than one year and less than 10 years are entitled to five days of annual leave. Those who have worked at least 10 years but less than 20 years are entitled to 10 days. Finally, employees are entitled to 15 days once they have worked for at least 20 years.

Under the new regulations, employees should take their entire annual leave entitlement within each year. If an employer cannot arrange for an employee to take annual leave because of workplace demands, then the employer may carry over the untaken leave to the following year, but this may only be done once. However, if the employee agrees, the employer may pay the employee 300% of the employee’s average daily wage for each day of annual leave accrued but not taken. In any event, the employee must either be granted his/her annual leave or paid the 300% compensation.

The Ministry of Labor and Social Security is also working on draft implementing measures that should clarify some unclear issues, such as the treatment of paid annual leave that employers provide in excess of the minimum national requirements, whether the "service period" includes the time with prior employers (or just the current employer), and how to treat employees who begin or end work in the middle of a calendar year.

Someone must have put something in the water coolers at our Beijing office, because we also have a number of female staff going on maternity leave soon — congratulations to them all!