Commentator Li Jing

According to the report of the Workers' Daily on March 7, Zou Zhen, member of the CPPCC National Committee and secretary of the Secretariat of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, at this year's two sessions of the National People's Congress, submitted a proposal to further improve the employee's funeral leave system, pointing out that there are problems such as lagging policy documents and narrow coverage of the funeral leave system, and put forward some suggestions.

In recent years, labor disputes caused by asking for funeral leave have been seen in the media from time to time, and calls for reform of the current funeral leave system from all walks of life have increased year by year. It is understood that the current regulations on funeral leave in China can refer to the former Ministry of Labor's Opinions on Wages and Benefits of Enterprise Workers and Staff during Overtime, Personal Leave, Sick Leave and Shutdown in 1959, and the former State Administration of Labor and the Ministry of Finance's Notice on Marriage, Funeral Leave and Road Leave for Employees of State owned Enterprises in 1980. These two rules and regulations have been formulated for a long time, and the latter only applies to state-owned enterprises. At the same time, according to the regulations, the scope of application of the bereavement leave system for relatives is only parents, spouses and children, excluding grandparents, maternal grandparents, parents in law and parents in law. The number of days of paid funeral leave has not changed for decades, and the unit will give one to three days of leave at its discretion. The regulations also specify that if both parties are not working in the same place when the employee gets married, and if the employee needs to go to other places to attend the funeral when his or her immediate family member dies, he or she may be given a travel leave according to the distance.

With the increasing proportion of the "124" family structure in China and the normalization of cross regional migration of population, it is more and more common for people's various relatives to shrink in size and separate from their relatives; With the deepening of the reform of China's political and economic system, more and more employees of all kinds of ownership enterprises and various forms of employment. In such a realistic context, the provisions on bereavement leave do seem to lag behind.

It is necessary for human relations and filial piety to go home and take care of the affairs after the death of relatives. In addition to parents, spouses, children, grandparents, maternal grandparents, parents in law, parents in law, and parents in law are also close relatives. In fact, many people are brought up by their grandparents, who have irreplaceable deep feelings with each other. On the one hand, employees in different places often need to travel home for long distance funeral, and when they get home, funeral services are often complicated, and one to three days may not be enough; On the other hand, when a close relative dies, the person concerned is undoubtedly very sad. It does not mean that he can go to work only after his emotions have completely calmed down, but it does seem that he is in a hurry for two or three days.

In reality, most units have done a good job in dealing with the issue of bereavement leave, taking into account the feelings of employees and not demanding specific days of leave, but a few units seem to be somewhat unkind. If the funeral leave system can be arranged and designed more in line with the times, it will obviously be a good thing and a comfort for employees.

In fact, at the two sessions of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress a few years ago, there were also suggestions on the reform of the funeral leave system. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security also made a public reply, saying that the relevant reform has been under research and demonstration. The suggestion made by Zou Zhen this year shows the continuous concern of all sectors of society on this issue.

"Cautiousness at the end of the day and pursuing the future" is the traditional virtue of the Chinese nation, and it is also a reflection of people-oriented. It is of great practical significance to improve the funeral leave system, expand the scope of application of funeral leave and increase the number of days of funeral leave for respecting traditional culture and promoting family harmony and social harmony. It is expected that the relevant departments will pay attention to the suggestions of the representative committee members, listen to the voices of all parties, do a good job of investigation and research, and strive to make workers feel more institutional and humanistic care.