Child Care Crisis? One Working Parent Can Stay Home and Still Get Paid

Parents that both work and have children under 18 will be allowed to have mom or dad stay home to take care of the kids without fear of termination or having their pay docked, Beijing’s Social Security bureau clarified last week.

Earlier this month, the Beijing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau and the Beijing Municipal Education Commission jointly issued a notice stipulating that one spouse from every dual-working household shall be permitted to stay home and look after children under the age of 18. Likewise, the one parent staying home is entitled to full pay regardless of the amount of work they can get done, Lu clarified.

In an article in Beijing News last week, Beijing Municipal Human Resource and Social Security Bureau press secretary Lu Xiaobo reiterated the rules on the eve of what was supposed to be the first day back to school for most Beijing students.

Currently all public and private schools in the city are restricted from restarting off-line classes due to the Covid-19 outbreak, with no new announced restart date in sight.

Lu also said that employers will not be permitted to terminate the labor contract with those staying home for child care, and for those with labor contracts about to expire, employers should extend them until the completion of the quarantine period or the emergency measures imposed by the government.

Parents of minors should follow their company’s leave application procedure and negotiate a work from home arrangement with their employer, or adjust hours as necessary, such as working weekends to compensate for lost time once business operations return to normal. In the meantime, employers and employees are encouraged to be flexible with working hours to ensure that their company gets back on track.

It should also be noted that the policy does not strictly address single parent households.

Moreover, according to the regulation, this policy only applies to parents who have children in kindergarten through grade 12, and cannot attend school due to the delay in onsite classes. The policy does not apply to children under the age of 3, who, according to Chinese law, are not required to attend school.

As with most things during the Covid-19 outbreak, this policy is largely predicated on an honor system, and puts faith in the employee to honestly self-report their family’s unique situation. So although two parents could, conceivably, both tell their employers that they are unable to work, and thus take untold days off, it is up to each and every one of us to do what we can to get China’s economy back on track.

Lu said companies and employees should keep their communication positive, negotiate in kind, and reach a mutually agreeable consensus.

“Each family member should take some responsibility for looking after children,” Lu said. “We recommend sharing the responsibility in order to allow the working parents to return to work, which will benefit the whole country’s economic recovery.”

Photos: Alyssa Stevenson on Unsplash, Pixabay