Labour Leader - Shanghai and Beijing offer varied forms of extended leave for newlyweds and parents

This article has been updated to reflect Shenzhen’s additional maternity leave for the first child that is a late birth.

At the start of the year the Population and Family Planning Law of the People’s Republic of China (the Family Planning Law) was amended (effective as of 1 January 2016) to encourage eligible couples to have a second child. The amended Family Planning Law also removed the special leave for a late marriage and special leave for a late childbirth. Given the changes to the legal framework at the national level, employers need to pay close attention to the local rules in the jurisdictions in which they are established in order to ensure that they provide accurate entitlements to their employees.

In late February 2016 Shanghai amended the local Population and Family Planning Regulations (the Shanghai Regulations) in line with the changes made to the Family Planning Law. In particular, the amended Shanghai Regulations, which came into effect on 1 March 2016, provide for an additional seven days’ marriage leave. This extends the total marriage leave entitlement to ten days, regardless of the age of the couple at their marriage. The amended Shanghai Regulations also extend the paternity leave entitlement from three to ten days. In addition, provided that the relevant legal requirements are complied with, an employee who gives birth will be entitled to an additional 30 days’ maternity leave, irrespective of whether the baby is the first or second child and the age of the child’s parents.

Following Shanghai and a few other provinces, on 24 March 2016 Beijing amended its local Population and Family Planning Regulations (the Beijing Regulations) so they are in line with the national law. Like Shanghai, the amended Beijing Regulations provide for an additional seven days’ marriage leave and thus extend the total marriage leave entitlement to ten days, regardless of the age of the couple at their marriage. Female employees who give birth in compliance with local regulations will receive an additional 30 days’ maternity leave, irrespective of whether the baby is the first or second child and the age of the newborn’s parents. Notably, the amended Beijing Regulations now grant fathers paternity leave of 15 days, eliminating the complicated and conditional leave that existed under the old regulations in Beijing, and in contrast to the 10-day entitlement in Shanghai. Further, the Beijing Regulations provide that, subject to the approval of the employer, a female employee can enjoy an additional leave of 1-3 months on top of her statutory maternity leave entitlement. The Beijing Regulations are silent on what level of pay the employee will be entitled to receive during this additional leave.  However, it is more likely than not that the authorities will require an employer to pay the regular base monthly salary to the female employee during this period of extended leave. How this provision will be implemented in practice is yet to be seen, particularly given the added cost this could create for employers.

Now that the major locations have issued their local regulations, employers should update their handbooks and internal policies.  In doing so, employers will need to consider whether to harmonize benefits across multiple locations or simply follow the local, incongruent regulations when administering these benefits across their employee populations.