An employee's application to use the 206 hours of time off saved from overtime to accompany a family member suffering from cancer was not approved; an employee applied for a total of 10 working days of time off in a year, but only took 1.5 days due to the 90-day validity period...
How to solve the problem when the time off earned from working overtime is "stuck in the middle"?
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Why do individual companies’ applications for furlough leave always show “Under Approval”? For compensated leave, some companies set a 90-day validity period, require workers to provide supporting documents, or "only review but do not approve", and even quietly modify the compensated leave regulations in the background. A similar situation resulted in the adjustment of time off being "stuck halfway". In this regard, how to overcome the "blockage" in the application for time off?
"Employees in the company's marketing line can apply for compensated leave except for those who work overtime on Saturdays of the week at the end of the month. Overtime on other weekdays or Saturdays is basically considered 'unpaid overtime.'" Mr. Jin, who works for a technology company, recently reported to a reporter from the Workers' Daily that he rarely applied for compensated leave after joining the company. "Later, I signed an agreement with the company, and I never mentioned it."
The reporter noticed that in practice, some workers face the problem of "difficulty in adjusting their leave". In a recent case heard by the People's Court of Donghu New Technology Development Zone in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, an employee Li applied to the company to use 206 hours of time off that he had saved from overtime work to accompany his family because his family member was suffering from cancer, but was not approved. Subsequently, Li resigned to take care of his family and applied for labor arbitration. Both the company and the company involved in the case were dissatisfied with the arbitration award, and both parties filed lawsuits in court.
Why are some workers “daunted” by applying for furlough? Behind this, some companies promote an "overtime culture" and workers are afraid to apply for time off for fear of affecting their performance appraisal or promotion; some companies use their advantageous position to formulate overly strict and cumbersome procedures and regulations for time off. The above situation has caused the compensation leave to be "stuck halfway", and some workers have to give up the compensation leave.
Some workers encountered "stuck points" when applying for compensated leave
"Why do I have to look at my superiors when I get paid time off by working overtime?" "When taking time off at the company, you need to provide sufficient reasons. If you have something to do at home, you must explain what it is. If you go to the hospital, you need to provide a diagnosis certificate. If you just want to take a rest, even if you apply to use the time off that you have earned by working overtime, you are not allowed." On some online platforms, some workers posted "complaints" about the company's company's application mechanism for paid time off.
Mr. Ji, who works in an engineering company, said that he had applied for a total of about 10 working days of paid leave in one year, but due to the fact that the paid leave was only valid for 90 days and the busy work schedule, he only actually got 1.5 days of paid leave, and the rest of the rest of the paid leave was voided.
In response to the "stuck points" in the application for compensated leave, Ban Xiaohui, a professor at Wuhan University Law School, said in an interview with a reporter from the Workers' Daily, "For example, some companies set up multi-layer approval mechanisms without clear processing deadlines, and do not explain the reasons when rejecting applications; employees are required to submit medical records, tickets and other materials, and the qualifications for compensated leave are confused with the reasons for the leave; only one day of compensated leave is limited, and it is not approved during busy periods; after rejecting the application, the company does not settle overtime pay, etc."
The reporter combed through public case information and found that some companies "only review but do not approve" applications for paid leave, which infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of workers. In a case heard by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, an employee submitted an application for overtime and time off in accordance with the company's requirements. The company did not approve it, but later terminated the labor relationship on the grounds that the employee was absent from work. Ultimately, the court determined that the company involved in the case acted illegally and should pay compensation to employees for illegal termination of labor relations.
Why is there a phenomenon that “it’s easy to work overtime but hard to get time off”? Ban Xiaohui believes that "the main reason is that the specific application procedures are still not clear enough, such as who initiates it, how long it takes to arrange it, how many days it takes to approve it, whether it can span multiple years, how to settle it when leaving the job, etc. In addition, 'adjusted leave' is often used interchangeably with flexible working hours, holiday shifts and annual leave. The rules for handling compensated leave are also different in different working hour systems and need to be further refined."
The rights and obligations of some companies and employees are not equal
In the above-mentioned Li case heard by the People's Court of Wuhan Donghu New Technology Development Zone, during the court hearing, the employee submitted the "Management System" that he downloaded from the intranet of the company involved in the case before leaving his job, as well as a full screen recording of the download. The relevant system only stated that overtime work could be replaced with days off, and did not stipulate the calculation standards for overtime pay.
In this regard, the company submitted a "Management System" with the same name and number to the court, but in the same clause position as the version submitted by Li, there was an additional sentence "If the leave is not compensated, overtime pay will be calculated according to the employee's basic salary" to prove its claim.
After comparing the evidence from both parties, the judge concluded that the company, as an internal website manager, has the authority to modify the backend data at any time. The company failed to submit objective evidence to provide a reasonable explanation for the differences between the two versions of the "Management System" and should bear the burden of proof. Based on this, the court adopted the version of the system that Li retained and calculated overtime wages based on a monthly salary base of more than 5,000 yuan. The court of first instance ruled accordingly that the company involved in the case paid Li a total of more than 16,000 yuan, including overtime wages on rest days. The company was dissatisfied with the verdict and appealed. The court of second instance rejected the appeal and upheld the original verdict.
In this regard, Ban Xiaohui analyzed that when workers claim overtime benefits, they need to initially prove that the overtime work is arranged or recognized by the unit, the specific duration, the status of uncompensated time off, and the wage base. "However, the attendance, approval, and compensation and leave accounts are mostly controlled by the enterprise, and employees often cannot access them after they leave. Even if employees retain screenshots, their authenticity and integrity may be questioned. This asymmetry in rights and obligations is one of the reasons why compensation and leave are 'stuck in the middle.'"
So, are the cumbersome processes and regulations that some companies have set up to adjust their leave legally tenable? Zhang Feng, a lawyer at Beijing Yingke (Jiaxing) Law Firm, believes that "it is usually unreasonable to set up a 'tedious approval process' or require workers to submit 'materials necessary for time off', and it is also illegal to implement 'expiration and invalidation' regulations in most cases. For employees' overtime work on rest days, companies have the obligation to arrange time off within a certain reasonable period. This is an obligation of the company, not a right. Since it is the obligation of the company, it cannot 'pass the blame' to the employee."
Optimize the system to make the adjustment of leave "unimpeded"
Ban Xiaohui said that companies can set up reasonable leave procedures, but systems involving rest, vacation and labor remuneration should implement democratic consultation and publicity procedures, and employees' statutory rights should not be excluded. "If an enterprise avoids its responsibilities through multi-layer approval, long-term shelving or 'clearing when due', the relevant regulations will be difficult to obtain legal support. If compensatory leave cannot be arranged for overtime work on rest days, overtime wages should be paid, and compensated leave, annual leave, etc. cannot be simply 'automatically cleared'."
"The key to optimizing the vacation system is not to take more days or less days, but to make vacation arrangements more predictable, more negotiable, and more accountable." Zhang Feng suggested that at the macro level, we should adhere to "statutory guarantees, flexible arrangements to increase efficiency, and clear cost sharing." We should establish a mechanism to assess the impact of vacations and announce them in advance, and make it clear that workers have the initiative to enjoy flexible vacation date arrangements within a certain period after working overtime, instead of passively waiting for the unit to arrange it.
"In terms of supervision, relying on government affairs platforms and corporate employment systems to form traces of the implementation of the vacation system, promote labor inspections to shift from post-event punishment to regular verification and credit constraints, establish corporate credit files on the implementation of vacation vacations, rate long-term compliant enterprises with stars, and guide companies to make legal and compliant vacation arrangements competitive." Zhang Feng said that vacation vacations are not simply to divert vacations, but a touchstone of governance capabilities, so that workers can rest assured, enterprises have orderly production schedules, and society operates appropriately, thereby promoting a win-win situation for all parties.
Ban Xiaohui suggested that the adjustment of leave should be improved from both the legislative and corporate system levels. "In the future, legislation or judicial interpretations can be passed to further clarify the application conditions for time off, the maximum arrangement period, the approval time limit, justifiable reasons for rejection and the consequences of overdue approval. Enterprises should also formulate and publicize operating rules in accordance with the law, clarify the date, nature, hours of overtime, time off period and separation settlement method, and establish a time off ledger that employees can query, confirm and download to prevent relevant rights and interests from being 'hanging' for a long time."
Our reporter Fu Ziqing
Source: Workers Daily
