12 May, 2016
After the National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted changes to China’s Family Planning Law in December 2015, Beijing Municipality, Jiangsu Province and Chongqing Municipality recently changed their local family planning rules (“New Rules”). These New Rules implement the changes made at the national level by removing the concept of “late-marriage” and “late-birth”, and have changed the conditions for and length of marriage and maternity/paternity leave in the three locations as follows:
Marriage leave
Late-marriage leave has been repealed in the three locations and instead employees are provided with additional marriage leave days provided that they legally register their marriage. Now employees will be entitled to the following marriage leave days:
Beijing: 8-10 total days (local officials usually recommend that companies give all employees 3 days’ marriage leave to begin with, therefore employees will now be entitled to 10 days in total following the 7 additional marriage leave days provided by the New Rules).
Jiangsu Province: 10 additional days (excluding public holidays) in addition to the marriage leave granted in each city, e.g. in Nanjing, employees are entitled to 3 days’ marriage leave, so now they will be entitled to 3+10 days of marriage leave.
Chongqing: 15 days
Maternity and Paternity leave
Late-birth maternity leave is replaced by additional maternity leave. If the birth of the child is legal, the female and male employees will be entitled to the following maternity and paternity leave days:
Beijing and Chongqing: 128 days maternity leave and 15 days’ paternity leave
Specifically in Beijing, subject to the employer’ approval, female employees may also be provided another 1 to 3 months’ maternity leave in addition to the maternity leave mentioned above.
Jiangsu: 98+30 days (excluding public holidays) and 15 days paternity leave (excluding public holidays)
Key Take-Away Points:
Since the “late-birth” and “late-marriage” limitations on the eligibility of leave entitlements have been removed, more employees will be eligible for taking extended marriage, maternity and paternity leave. Companies operating in the three locations mentioned above will need to amend their leave policies to reflect the latest changes.
For further information, please contact:
Jonathan Isaacs, Baker & McKenzie
jonathan.isaacs@bakermckenzie.com
