Encourage leisure consumption, promote market recovery, and promote short-distance tourism

Test water more often "two and a half days on weekends"

  Wang Junling Gong Wenjing Li Jiabei

  ——"2.5 days off, weekend excursions can be arranged! Not only avoid peak travel, but also improve the quality of life."

  ——"Short working hours, will it affect the company's revenue, and further reduce employees' salaries and benefits?"

  Recently, the 2.5-day rest system per week has caused heated discussion. Since March of this year, Hebei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Gansu and other places have tried to implement the "2.5-day rest system" on weekends in order to reduce the number of people gathered and promote market recovery, encourage leisure consumption, and promote domestic demand replenishment. How is this policy currently implemented? What other issues need to be resolved? How to develop in the future? This newspaper conducted a visit.

More flexibility, more leisure planning options

  "After a half-day rest on Friday afternoon, I went to Yuzhouwan Wetland Park, and the hydrangea flowers were blooming beautifully!" Ms. Xiao arranged the city's surrounding tour plan happily. According to the notice, Jiangxi Province started the two-and-a-half-day weekend in the second quarter, which is expected to last for three months. Ms. Xiao, who works in a state-owned enterprise in Nanchang, received this benefit earlier.

  Li Xiangyang, a senior student in Xiangyang, Hubei, looks forward to this system: "If it can be fully implemented, I agree. I have been used to 5 days of school and 2 days of rest during my undergraduate period. If I can work for two and a half days a week Rest, I will use this time to learn new skills, make up for the deficiencies of entering the workplace, and quickly integrate into the society."

  "After the policy is implemented, the child's father has more time to accompany his family, especially to pick up the child home early." Wang Xin said that his husband works in Inner Mongolia Power Group. From May 1st, the group will implement a "2.5-day flexible schedule" on weekends, and will increase the working hours by half an hour every day from Monday to Thursday. Regarding the new changes brought about by the policy, Wang Xin, a housewife, was very pleased: "Not long ago, we set off on Friday afternoon for a short trip in the suburbs and the family had a great time!"

  It is understood that the so-called "2.5-day rest system", that is, Friday afternoon plus weekend short holiday adjustment mode. As early as August 2015, the "Several Opinions on Further Promoting Tourism Investment and Consumption" issued by the General Office of the State Council proposed to encourage flexible work and rest, and places and units with conditions can optimize and adjust the summer work and rest arrangements according to law according to actual conditions. Workers create favorable conditions for going out for a leisure holiday on Friday afternoon and weekend.

  On May 14, the Office of the Administrative Office of Xing'an League, Inner Mongolia issued the "Notice on the Temporary Flexible Leave System", proposing to promote the epidemic prevention and control and tourism development as a whole, and guide the general public to actively participate in holiday tourism and leisure activities Starting from the day, the temporary 2.5-day flexible vacation system for the weekend will end until July 15. More than 10 provinces, including Hebei, Jiangxi, Chongqing, Gansu, and Zhejiang, explored the "two-and-a-half-day weekend", and launched the "2.5-day vacation system" in March.

  In order to prevent the “water and soil disapproval” of the trial implementation of the system, the provinces have made corresponding differentiated regulations according to the actual situation. For example, Zhejiang Province supports qualified agencies, social organizations, enterprises and institutions to implement the paid vacation system; while Longnan City, Gansu Province is only a trial for “administrative institutions”. Jiangxi Province only piloted it in the second quarter of 2020, while Jinzhong City in Shanxi Province and Ji'an City in Jiangxi Province extended their implementation time from April 1 to October 31.

Boosted consumption, the tourism market responded positively

  "Although the two-and-a-half-day vacation system has been proposed for many years, it has been tepid. The outbreak of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic has provided an opportunity to promote the real landing of the system." Zhang Liyun, associate professor of the School of Law, China Institute of Labor Relations, said here A key node frequently proposed the "two-and-a-half-day weekend". The current goal was to boost consumption and promote stable economic growth. Taking weekends as a breakthrough point to stimulate economic consumption can form household-based consumption behavior and increase consumption expenditure.

  According to estimates by the China Tourism Research Institute, affected by the epidemic, domestic tourist arrivals fell by 56% in the first quarter of 2020, and domestic tourism revenue fell by 69% year-on-year. The "2.5 days on weekends" has brought new hope to the tourism industry.

  Lu Jianlei, an employee of the Taxation Bureau of Binhu New District in Hengshui, Hebei, said that with more than half a day of rest, the arrangements for the weekend can be more abundant, and you can also go on short trips with friends and family. "I personally work in the field, and I can use this time to rush home to avoid the danger of driving at night. In fact, I feel that the tourism industry is also in urgent need of stimulating consumption. The people can also use the extra half a day to rush to the scenic area in advance. , The travel experience has improved after the time is not so tight."

  Wu Mingyuan, assistant general manager of China Travel Group Travel Service Co., Ltd., introduced that with the domestic epidemic situation under control, the implementation of the "2.5-day weekend" in some areas has created favorable conditions for short-distance travel and has created a large demand. In response to the rising demand for short-distance travel and surrounding travel, CTS set up a domestic travel working group in April to ensure the safety of tourists while delineating seven key domestic travel markets in Hainan, Beijing, East China, Yunnan, Chongqing, Xinjiang, and Tibet. "The rising demand for short-distance travel has in turn stimulated industry innovation. Jiangsu CTS recently planned a'flying wind, fly together' aviation science parent-child study activity, parents and children experience the fun of exploring and learning together on weekends; "Quiet life · Slow travel" outdoor parent-child activities, while fully ensuring user safety, deepen consumer demand for parent-child coexistence in private space. In the future, such targeted features and short-term tourism products will be further launched." Wu Mingyuan Introduction.

  It is not only tourism that is optimistic about the "2.5 days of weekend" pulling effect. Xu Xizhang, deputy general manager of Suzhou Zhongxiang Human Resources Service Co., Ltd., also recognized this system. Xu Xizhang believes that this move can restore the economic development of the tertiary industry and service industry to a certain extent. When employees get more rest time, they can increase labor productivity and work enthusiasm. “As far as Zhejiang is concerned, the Hangjiahu area is relatively developed and people’s average income is relatively high. It is also a place with rich tourism resources. The flexible vacation can be digested through tourism consumption in conjunction with the consumption vouchers launched by Hangzhou. The effect will be very good. Huang Zhaojun, an employee of the Retired Military Affairs Bureau of Pujiang County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, said, "However, residents of Zhejiang Province, such as Jinhua, Quzhou, and Lishui, which are relatively underdeveloped in economy, prefer to spend their free time to earn extra money.

Good things are done well, scientific execution is the key

  It is worth noting that at present, the units that implement the "2.5-day weekend" flexible work and rest are mostly government agencies, public institutions and state-owned enterprises with relatively stable work and fixed time, and grassroots units, service agencies and private enterprises implement this policy. Difficult.

  "Since the resumption of production and production, the company is taking the time to hurry. As a startup company, the number of customers on the APP side is growing rapidly this year, and this system is unlikely to be implemented in the company's business growth period." Chief Executive of Hunan Miaomutong Information Technology Co., Ltd. Official Chen Zili said that the proportion of private enterprises that can fully realize two-day rest and annual leave in Changsha is not high. Many small and micro enterprises have stagnated during the epidemic. For them, ensuring output at the current stage is more important.

  At the same time, the potential problems that may arise after the implementation of the "two-and-a-half-day weekend" have also triggered differences in the workplace. Earlier, at a video conference of employee representatives of an enterprise in Shenyang, a debate was held on whether to implement the "two-and-a-half-day weekend". The enterprise and employees did not reach an agreement, which eventually ended.

  Wang Shuixiong, a researcher at the National Development and Strategy Research Institute of Renmin University of China, pointed out that the difficulty of implementing policies is mainly due to the lack of clear policies and flexible implementation space in various regions. "Now, many places across the country are piloting two and a half days of weekends. The wording is more of "encouragement" and "recommendation" rather than enforcement. For employers, especially private enterprises and SMEs, let employees work for 1 more day It means that they can earn more profits, and they naturally tend not to implement it for the time being. This has caused unfair competition between units that implement and do not implement policies." Wang Shuixiong said.

  Wang Shuixiong suggested that policy formulation should be done more thoroughly, for example, requiring employers to uniformly implement the system of "4 days off and 3 days off." The advantage of this system is that every weekend is a "small holiday", employees can travel the whole family, and even realize the "Twin Cities" working in one city and living in another city, which is obvious for economic growth. . Of course, in order to truly achieve the effect of promoting consumption and stimulating the economy, other policies should be supplemented. For example, the government should allow larger-scale informal employment, and kindergartens and primary and secondary schools should adjust the school hours accordingly.

  In response to the current difficulties of employee leave in some employers, Xing Yan, a lawyer from Shenyang Daquan Law Firm, said that according to the labor law, employers should ensure that workers take at least one day off per week; the State Council’s Regulations on Working Hours of Employees Organs and institutions implement unified working hours, with Saturdays and Sundays as weekly rest days. Therefore, let the existing paid vacations be implemented in order to better play the role of "two days and a half weekend".