How to Manage the Marriage Leave?

In February 2014, Ms. Zhou asked for the marriage leave. Because Ms. Zhou got married at a late age as stipulated by the relevant law (Note: The late marriage leave would be abolished since the ‘Amendment of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Population and Family Planning’ will come into force on 1st Jan. 2016 ), the company approved 10 days leave. Later then, Ms. Zhou got divorced. In 2015, Ms. Zhou remarried, and asked for the marriage leave again, but the company refused her application.

In practice, the employers would ignore the issues related to the marriage leave, such as, how many days of the marriage leave; how to manage the marriage leave related to special occasions, such as remarriage, and etc.. Then the disputes related to such issues would arise.

Firstly, how many days of the marriage leave? There are no national laws or regulations which has specified the specific days. Currently, the majority of those provinces and cities (including Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai) set 3 days for the marriage leave, in reference to the ‘Regulations of Leave of Marriage, Funeral and Travel for Workers in Stated-owned Enterprises’ which was released in 1980. The other provinces and cities set more than 3 days, such as ‘The Notice Issued by the Chongqing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau on Dealing with the Leave of Marriage, Funeral for Workers’, in which it has set 5 days for the marriage leave in Chongqing. In view of these, the specific days of the marriage leave shall be determined based on the local regulations. In addition, while the late marriage leave has been cancelled, the employers shall pay attention to its local regulations on the late marriage leave, if the local regulations amend such provisions, the employers shall obey the latest requirements.

Secondly, whether the remarried employee shall ask for the marriage leave? In practice, some companies may prescribe in the internal rules and regulations, which say that the employee could only apply for the marriage leave once. But in the ‘Reply of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security on Relevant Issues concerning the Marriage Leave of the Remarried Workers’, which has prescribed that the enterprises should provide the same marriage welfare to the first marriage workers and the remarried workers. In view of this, the remarried employee shall be entitled to ask for the marriage leave. In the case hereinabove, while Ms. Zhou got remarried, the company shall approve the marriage leave.

Thirdly, whether the marriage leave shall include the weekends and statutory holidays; when the marriage leave shall be applied; and whether the employee shall divide the marriage leave into several short term leave, and etc., For these special occasions, till now, there are no national laws or regulations which has specified on this issue, and the local regulations are fragmented. We would suggest the employer to specify these occasions in its internal rules and regulations.