BEIJING, March 26 (Xinhua) -- China's State Council Thursday asked local governments to "strictly" observe regulations on national holidays.

    The State Council ordered local authorities at all levels not to mandate self-arranged days off or change the schedule of the Cabinet's national holiday plan during the country's statutory holidays.

    The central government's holiday plan for 2009, which was publicized on Dec. 4 last year, maintained the May Day and three other traditional one- day Chinese festivals -- Tomb-sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-autumn Festival.

    However, employers could make flexible schedules based on their employees' will to implement the Regulation on Paid Annual Leave for Employees which went into effect Jan. 1, 2008, according to an announcement by the State Council on Thursday.

    The regulation grants an employee a maximum of 15-day paid days off each year, in addition to the statutory holidays, depending on the employee's length of service. The law is in place to protect each employee's right to time off.

    The Cabinet's announcement came one day after the southern Guangdong Province said it would resume the week-long May Day holiday this year in a bid to revive the economy.

    The Guangdong-planned holidays will fall on May 1-7. Apart from the May 1 holiday, it consists of four weekend days and two days of paid leave. Local residents have to work over the weekend of May 9-10.

    Being the country's first province with plans to resume the week-long holiday, Guangdong expected the move to help encourage travel and spur domestic demand since its export-oriented economy has been hit hard by reduced global demand for its products.

    Other cities, autonomous region and provinces like Chongqing, Xinjiang and Hunan were also considering resuming the week-long holiday which local authorities believed could stimulate tourism market and resident's consumption.

    The Cabinet's announcement said the central government had paid great attention to the public discussion to resume week-long May Day holidays, adding that the decision to shrink the May Day holidays and introduce the three traditional festivals has increased people's rest time and has been supported by the general public.

    Previously, workers were expected to work one weekend on either side of May 1. They had a three-day holiday and two days in lieu for the weekend they worked. These five days around the weekend closest to May 1 gave seven consecutive days off work.

    The government decided in December 2007 to cut the May holidays to a one-day break.