Employees in China will for the first time have one day off on the Qing Ming Festival day and they will be paid three times their daily salary if they are asked to work on this legal holiday.

A representative from Beijing Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau has said in a statement that during this year's Qing Ming Festival which falls on April 4, employees will have a three-day holiday, including the one-day Tomb-sweeping Day and the two-day weekend. Employers should pay their employees three times more than their daily average salary if they want them to work on the day. The employers must also not arrange another day for the employees to take a rest as a substitute for paying them the three-times salary.

The representative says that China's labor and social security department is working on a rule related to the State Council's Rule on Employee's Paid Annual Holiday, which says if the employers can't arrange a time for the staff to take their annual holiday, they should pay them three times their salary, and for those staff who resign before taking the holiday, the employer should compensate them for the un-taken annual holiday.