A recent survey shows that Chinese workers were given an average of 19.14 official days of holiday (including paid holidays and other holidays designated by ones' company) per year, by virtue of labour laws and other related regulations. However, they actually only rest 18.13 days on average.

30 percent of workers say they couldn't fully enjoy their holidays, according to the survey conducted by Horizon Research.

People working in the service industry suffer the most, enjoying 2.11 days less than the average figure. Following them were professional and technical workers. 16.3 percent of respondents say they only enjoy half of their designated holidays. And 8.4 percent claim that they never rest from work even during official holidays.

The researchers also find that employers made compensations to their overworked employees in many ways. 58.6 percent interviewees say they can get cash compensation for the missing holidays. 40 percent say they can ask the company to give them an equivalent-long holiday for rest. And 13.4 say that their bosses had promised that the overtime work performance would help them to gain the opportunity for promotion. But there are still 17 percent of workers who claim they get nothing for working overtime.

Almost all the interviewees expressed that nothing can compensate for the lost holidays, saying that working overtime is consuming their health, increasing their pressure and threatening their family life.

The research has covered 2865 households from 10 Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Weekends were not calculated as official holidays.

(cri.cn August 1, 2007)