Tourists at an agricultural sightseeing base in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province in east China, on March 21 (XINHUA) 

With the novel coronavirus epidemic situation largely under control, local governments are going out of their way to revive the economy. The idea of extending the weekends by half a day to boost consumption has gained growing popularity recently. 

Provinces including Jiangxi and Zhejiang in the east and Hebei in the north, and cities such as Nanjing of Jiangsu Province in the east and Longnan of Gansu Province in the northwest have already announced the extension of weekends to two-and-half days in an attempt to leave more time for consumption. Some of them are even offering vouchers or half-price tickets for tourism spots.  

Sichuan Province in southwest China also announced on April 14 that it will encourage its residents to combine their paid leave with public holidays such as the Dragon Boat Festival to have longer vacation.  

“The extended weekend will bring people more flexibility in making travel plans, such as a three-day-two-night outing, which in turn will increase demand for catering and accommodation,” Bao Hong, deputy head of the Mogan Mountain Home-sharing Association in Zhejiang, told Xinhua News Agency. “It is a boon for the recovery of suburban tourist, home-sharing and farmhouse businesses,” he said.  

Li Changan, a professor at the School of Public Administration of the University of International Business and Economics, echoed Bao’s view. He believes that the move will also diversify the forms of employment and facilitate the implementation of a flexible holiday system.  

During or after the epidemic, allowing enterprises to appropriately adjust their labor policies and adopt a flexible employment policy in accordance with their operations could diversify the forms of flexible employment, Li said.  

Early in 2015, the State Council, China’s cabinet, proposed a guideline to encourage flexible working schedules. Local governments were encouraged to create conditions for people to combine Friday afternoon with the two-day weekend.  

However, some industry insiders believe longer weekends can, to some extent, promote the development of tourism and related industries, but since it’s not a national requirement, it’s up to the local governments to adopt the system. Therefore, whether or not it can be implemented depends on enterprises and organizations, and, currently it is difficult to say if it will be widely rolled out.  

Qi Tonggang, a representative from a small company in Zhejiang in east China, told Xinhua News Agency due to the epidemic, enterprises, especially small- and medium-sized ones, are facing operational difficulties and their profits are declining. Adopting a two-and-half-day weekend system will undoubtedly add to their burdens.  

Li said enterprises need to explore feasible ways to implement the policy of flexible work schedules, such as properly arranging their time schedules and workloads and establishing a reasonable shift system.  

Yang Jianhua, head of the Sociological Association of Zhejiang, said that, to encourage enterprises to carry out the policy, governments should provide authentic benefits such as tax rebate or reduction in their cost of social security to ease their burden.  

Xu Guangjian, a professor with the School of Public Administration and Policy at the Renmin University of China, told Xinhua News Agency that it’s of special significance in the current situation to implement a flexible working schedule, however, it should be based on the premise of ensuring 40 hours of work per week as stipulated by the law, so as not to affect normal production and life.  

Copyedited by Madhusudan Chaubey  

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