THE LOCAL LEGISLATURE of Southwest China's Chongqing municipality plans to allow local employees to take paid leave if they have elderly parents admitted to hospital. Guangzhou Daily comments:

Chongqing is not the first provincial-level administrative region to propose such leave. Southwest China's Sichuan province and Central China's Hubei province are also reportedly planning to do the same.

Elderly care leave is a good idea because it will allow employees to care for their elderly parents if they are admitted to hospital. Without such leave, they have to ask for leave of absence, which often means lower wages and fewer opportunities for promotion.

As a result, there have been many cases of employees quitting their jobs so that they can care for their elderly parents in hospital or else elderly patients lying in hospital with no one beside them.

The proposed elderly care leave will hopefully solve this problem. Chongqing plans to allow employees to ask for 10 to 20 days of paid leave to take care of their elderly parents should they be admitted to hospital. This would be a legal right.

If the proposed elderly care leave becomes law, it must be strictly implemented so as to prevent it from becoming a right on paper only. The Labor Law says every employee nationwide has the right to enjoy paid annual leaves, but in reality many companies violate their employees' rights, and the latter dare not speak out because they fear they will lose their jobs.

Other measures must be taken to ensure the elderly care leave is not illusive. For example, the local authorities could make a black list, and the enterprises that refuse to let their employees enjoy the leave should be put on the list and excluded from getting government contracts. Only in this way will employees be able to take elderly care leave.