The State Council recently released its National Outline for Tourism and Leisure Development, aimed at having a paid vacation system in place nationwide by 2020.

However, the public is not optimistic. Since it was first implemented in the French salaried class in 1936, the paid vacation system has been adopted by most countries and regions.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) also noted, "Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay."

Though a "paid vacation system" was signed into the Labor Law of the People's Republic of China in 1994 and the Regulations on Paid Annual Leave of Employees was adopted in 2008, most Chinese workers haven't enjoyed such benefits.

According to some polls, there are a number of reasons why it is so hard to implement the system. For instance, enterprises can ignore the system because of imperfect laws, employers and employees are not on an equal status, and it has become a tacit social consensus that no one gets a paid vacation.

Such reasons do make sense, but they are far from comprehensive. Tensions in the social structure and rigid constraints in reality can neither be escaped from, nor removed by administrative measures.

Many people believe it is difficult to realize the objectives set by the outline. As the labor market is heavily fragmented and increasingly competitive, employees can only dream about paid vacations. To many ordinary workers, keeping a job far outweighs the need for a holiday.

Therefore, government actions alone won't turn words into reality. If society and economy are not well developed, labor relations are not equal, and basic needs are not fully met, even the strongest government cannot implement a paid vacation system.

In an economic downturn, developed countries, like Japan, do not effectively guarantee their workers' paid vacations either. Apart from civil servants, Japanese employees can barely enjoy these benefits, as some companies do not implement paid vacation systems and some deprive their employees of vacations due to large workloads or staff shortages.

In China, although many optimistic people put forward various suggestions on implementing a paid vacation system, we have to note that the system is essentially a result of social productivity reaching a certain level.

The outline sets 2020 as the starting time of implementation, which indicates the government has realized it will inevitably face resistance if it carries out the system immediately.

Some are asking, who on earth would be unwilling to implement this system? But the question is not when the government will implement it, but when national conditions can support its implementation.

The author is a professor at the Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn