Be Aware! Not All Entitled to Annual Leave Pay!

Source: JobTube, Arianna J., Josh B.

In China, can employees ask for financial compensation if they havent finished their annual leaves when quitting?

On January 2, 2020, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the PRC gave an affirmative reply by a case interpretation on WeChat. In addition, they also pointed out the situations that employees aren't entitled to annual leave.

The Case

Chen had an occupational experience over 10 years but less than 20 years when the case occurred. In 2014, he joined a company. In 2018, due to the disagreement on the change of the labor contract, both parties agreed to terminate the contract and the company gave compensation to Chen in accordance with the law. However, Chen argued besides the above compensation, the company should also pay him the 10-day paid annual leave for 2018, as work reasons caused him not to take it.

In this regard, the company believed that Chen did not propose to take the annual leave because of personal reasons, and he took two months of sick leave in 2017, thus they disagree to compensate for the annual leave.

After the hearing, the Arbitration Commission held that since Chen's sick leave in 2017 did not exceed three months, thus the company still had to pay him the wages for the annual leave not taken in 2018.

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