Among employees’ many vacations, maternity leave can be said to be frequently asked by female employees, including HR. Due to pregnancy, maternity leave, and lactation leave, there are many policies on period and salary.
China has general maternity leave policies, but different cities and provinces can have different maternity leave policies.
In this article, we will introduce you to the Shanghai maternity leave policies, introduced in terms of the time dimension.
1) Marriage leave 10 days
Citizens who get married in accordance with the law shall, in addition to the marriage leave prescribed by the state, be granted an additional 7 days of marriage leave.
The marriage leaves that increases ought to combine with the marriage leave that the country sets. Commonly it is used continuously (include the weekend) if it meets national holidays is postponed.
2) Prenatal Inspection Leave
The article 13 of “Measures of Shanghai municipality for the protection of female workers” stipulates that, “during pregnancy, female workers’ prenatal examination within medical or health care institutions and during working hours shall be counted as working time (including the initial examination within 12 weeks of pregnancy).”
Although the medical and health authorities provide some reference data, the regulations do not strictly limit the number of tests. Prenatal visits should be arranged on the basis of each person’s specific circumstances and at the discretion of the medical establishment. As long as the doctor thinks it is necessary to have an examination, the employer should provide relevant conveniences.
For each visit to the health and medical institutions for prenatal examination, due to the traveling distance, queuing and the actual time spent on the examination, it is generally difficult to decide on a specific leave time limit. For this reason, the company, in accordance with rules and regulations, can ask female workers to make an application to the company before antenatal examination deadline, so that the company can arrange the normal job to run reasonably.
Female worker antenatal examination cannot be used as sick leave, and it is not possible to convert antenatal examination time into a corresponding workload, so to reflect it in the salary.
3) Maternity leave wages paid according to sick leave
Maternity leave is issued after the company receives the doctor’s certificate, so then the leave is paid according to the sick leave.
4) Prenatal leave (80% salary, 2.5 months)
Pregnant employees after the seventh month of pregnancy period may have two and a half months pre-delivery leave upon application and approval by the employer.
If the female worker has a certificate of birth history, severe pregnancy syndrome, pregnancy complications that might affect the normal birth, provided by the medical and health care institutions, the employer shall approve prenatal leave. The salary shall be 80% of the staff’s previous monthly pay standard.
In addition, pregnant employees after the seventh month of pregnancy period shall be given a 1-hour a daybreak, and the employer must not arrange night shifts.
Birth allowance
In Shanghai, the employer will not issue salaries to employees during their maternity leave. After childbirth, the employee could go to the related subdistrict office and get her maternity allowances. But in some cities, employers may still issue salaries to the employee when they are on maternity leave, but the maternity allowances should deduct the salary she already got.
Maternity allowance is based on the employer’s last year’s average salary.
Total is employer’s last year’s average salary / 30 * maternity leave days (usually is 128 days). If an employee’s salary is higher than the employer’s last year’s average salary, the employer should pay the gap to the employee.
5) 98 days maternity leave + 30 extra days off
The minimum number of maternity leave days is 98. The leave should be used continuously (including weekends), and it is postponed in case of national holidays. Besides the standard maternity leave, there are other leaves specific for particular situation.
In case of natural birth, the pregnant employer can have 30 extra days off, including 15 days leave that may be taken before delivery.
In case of abortion, if it is within four months of pregnancy, maternity leave of 15 days shall be provided; if it is after four months, maternity leave of 42 days shall be provided.
In case of dystocia, the maternity leave is increased by 15 days.
In case of employees that bear more than one baby in a single birth, an additional maternity leave of 15 days is provided for each additional baby.
6) Feeding period
With a baby under one year old, the female employee is allowed to have one feeding period of one hour per day. In the case of multiple births, one hour feeding time shall be added for each additional newborn baby.
In addition, article 15, paragraph 1 of the “Measures of Shanghai municipality for the protection of female workers” states that:
– after female workers give birth, their infants under one year old shall be nursed twice (including artificial feeding) during the working hours of each shift. The feeding time of every single baby is 30 minutes, and the two feeding times can be combined. For multiple births, for each additional baby, you can increase the feeding time by 30 minutes.
So, no matter the baby is breastfeeding or artificial fed, feeding time is an inalienable right of female workers.
The female worker and the company can also negotiate to give the worker one hour vacation each day or to get off work one hour in advance to feed the baby.
7) Feeding leave (80% salary, 6.5 months)
After childbirth, female employees, if confronted by difficulties and the company allows, may apply for and be granted feeding leave of six and a half months after they receive approval from the employer.
If a medical care institution or above secondary level institution proves that the employee suffers from postpartum diseases that seriously affect the health of mother and baby, the employer shall approve the six and a half months feeding leave if the employee applies for it.
Female workers during feeding leave receive the 80% of the salary. For the female workers that have a baby under one year old, the company cannot lengthen the labor time or arrange night shifts.
8) Paternity leave
Male workers can still take 10 days of paternity leave. The leave includes weekends and can be postponed in case of national holidays.
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