Sick leave and the medical period in Guangzhou for foreign employees

Put urgent care before Guangzhou employment administration

If the employee has a serious or rapidly worsening condition, call 120 or obtain urgent medical care without waiting for HR, a manager, an insurer or a leave decision. Tell the treating team the symptoms, medicines, allergies and relevant history and let qualified clinicians choose examination, treatment and discharge. Preserve the registration, encounter, diagnosis, prescription, test, imaging and discharge records after safety is addressed. Emergency treatment is a clinical response; it does not automatically approve employer sick leave, establish a statutory medical period, decide sick-leave pay or prove that the condition is work-related.

This guide covers administration for a foreign-national employee whose PRC labor relationship and employing unit are connected to Guangzhou. It cannot diagnose illness, certify individual fitness, determine whether a contractor or secondee is legally an employee, calculate a final award or predict a termination dispute. The responsible medical institution issues medical evidence; the employer maintains its leave and payroll records; the human-resources and social-security authority, arbitration committee and court decide matters within their jurisdiction. This is practical source-led information, not clinical advice or legal advice.

Urgent care, medical evidence, employer leave, sick-leave pay, the statutory medical period and an employment decision are separate stages.

Confirm the foreign employee and employing-unit boundary

The national foreign-employment rules connect a lawfully employed foreigner to a labor contract and to Chinese rules on minimum wage, working time, rest, leave, labor safety and social insurance. Start with the exact Chinese legal name of the employing unit, unified social-credit code, work-permit sponsor, contract, payroll entity, work location and passport identifier. A trading name, overseas parent, client site or payroll vendor may not be the legal employer. If those records differ, record the mismatch rather than assuming which entity bears the sick-pay and employment duties.

This route should not be promised to a visitor working without permission, a person outside the permitted employer or job scope, a genuine independent contractor, diplomatic or treaty-privileged personnel, or an overseas arrangement whose PRC labor status is unresolved. Those facts need authority or qualified legal review. A work permit helps identify the authorised employment but does not prove that every employer rule is valid, that a particular absence is approved, or that the employee has a particular medical-period length.

Keep nine records separate from the first day

Open distinct rows for: clinical care; the provider-issued medical certificate or diagnosis certificate; the employer sick-leave request and approval record; attendance and absence coding; sick-leave wage calculation; statutory medical-period accumulation; possible work-injury or occupational-disease handling; return-to-work restrictions; and any later employment decision or labor dispute. Add work-permit and residence administration as separate linked records. One document can support another stage, but it does not automatically become that next decision.

This separation prevents common category errors. A clinician's recommendation for rest does not itself approve payroll leave. Employer approval does not establish the statutory medical period or a work injury. Paying a reduced wage does not prove the absence was lawfully classified. A medical-period calculation does not select treatment. A return-to-work note does not decide whether a specific role is safe. A termination notice does not itself cancel immigration status. Keep dates, issuer, recipient, legal basis, decision and challenge route for each record.

Obtain a truthful provider-issued medical document

Ask the medical institution what document it issues for the employment purpose: a medical certificate, diagnosis certificate, sick-leave certificate, rest recommendation or discharge recommendation. A useful document commonly identifies the patient, actual visit date, issuing institution and clinician, relevant diagnosis or clinical basis, recommended rest dates or functional limits, issue date, signature or controlled seal, and an institution-level number where used. The physician must personally examine or investigate the patient, make a timely medical record and must not issue a false or out-of-scope proof.

National Health Commission rules do not create one universal sick-note template, hospital tier, maximum number of days or mandatory exact-diagnosis wording. Medical institutions establish their own forms where no unified form exists and must control numbering, authorised issuers and seals. Before leaving the provider, check the name and passport details, dates, legibility, issuer and seal. If correction is needed, use the institution's formal correction or reissue route; never alter a scan, translate by overwriting the original or ask a clinician to backdate an encounter.

Submit evidence through the employer's Guangzhou leave process

Guangzhou does not publish one universal employer sick-note form, same-day submission rule, public-hospital tier or maximum number of rest days per certificate. An employer may operate a reasonable, lawfully formulated and communicated notice and verification process, but should state its own deadline, accepted submission route, correction opportunity and consequences in writing and should not reduce statutory pay or medical-period rights. A sound process lets the employee notify the employer promptly, state the expected duration and contact method, upload or deliver the medical document, retain the original where appropriate, correct a minor defect and receive a written response. HR should distinguish “received,” “verified,” “approved as employer sick leave,” “entered into medical-period tracking” and “sent to payroll” rather than using one ambiguous status.

Employer rules directly affecting leave, wages and discipline must satisfy the Labor Contract Law's formulation, consultation and publication or notice requirements. Ask for the current Chinese rule, effective date and employee-notice evidence rather than relying on an oral statement. A company may reasonably verify authenticity and request proportionate support, but an internal policy cannot waive the statutory wage floor, shorten the national medical period or make a false certificate valid. If a submission is rejected, request the exact defect, policy clause, correction route and attendance consequence in writing.

Assign the national medical-period tier from two service histories

The statutory medical period is an employment-protection period for illness or non-work injury, not an annual quota of paid sick days and not the number of days written on one medical certificate. The national matrix uses both total actual working years and years with the current employing unit. If total actual working years are under ten, service with the current unit under five years maps to 3 months and service of at least five years maps to 6 months.

If total actual working years are at least ten, service with the current unit under five years maps to 6 months; five years but under ten maps to 9 months; ten but under fifteen maps to 12 months; fifteen but under twenty maps to 18 months; and at least twenty maps to 24 months. Obtain documents supporting both histories, including prior labor contracts, separation records, social-insurance or personnel records and current-employer start date. Do not infer a tier from age, nationality, diagnosis, one certificate or continuous service with only the present employer.

The national structure is 3, 6, 9, 12, 18 or 24 months; the individual tier depends on verified service facts.

Track accumulation windows, holidays and special-disease extensions

The national counting rule pairs each entitlement with a longer observation window: 3 months accumulate within 6 months; 6 within 12; 9 within 15; 12 within 18; 18 within 24; and 24 within 30. The first sick-absence day starts the relevant counting process, and rest days and statutory public holidays falling within the sick absence count. Maintain a dated ledger showing each absence span, certificate, employer code, days counted, cumulative total and remaining balance, and reconcile it with payroll and attendance every month.

Do not reset the ledger automatically for every diagnosis, certificate or calendar year. Do not assume that every day away from work belongs in the medical period without checking the legal classification, and keep annual leave, maternity leave, work-injury suspension-of-work-with-pay and unpaid personal leave separate. The implementation notice recognises a possible approved extension where certain special diseases, including examples such as cancer, mental illness or paralysis, remain unresolved after twenty-four months, but the enterprise and labor authority approval condition matters. Diagnosis alone does not guarantee twenty-four months or an extension.

Calculate sick-leave pay under the current Guangzhou rule

Guangzhou follows Article 24 of the Guangdong Wage Payment Regulations. During the statutory medical period, the sick-leave wage is determined by the labor contract, collective agreement or applicable national provisions, but it may not fall below 80% of the local minimum wage unless another law or regulation provides otherwise. Guangzhou's current monthly minimum wage is CNY 2,500 from 1 March 2025, so the present full-month statutory floor comparison is CNY 2,000. This is a floor, not a statement that every employee should receive exactly CNY 2,000. For a full month wholly classified inside the medical period, compare the amount produced by the valid contract, collective agreement or national rule with CNY 2,000 and apply the lawful higher outcome. If the month mixes ordinary work, paid leave and sick absence, ask payroll for a written line-by-line calculation and the divisor or method in the lawfully communicated wage system. No current Guangzhou rule located for this guide creates one universal sick-leave daily divisor, so do not import Shenzhen's formula or Shanghai payroll conventions.

The Guangzhou floor must not be generalised to Shenzhen: Shenzhen has a more specific municipal sixty-percent normal-working-time-wage rule. Conversely, Shenzhen's formula must not be inserted into a Guangzhou contract or guide merely because both cities are in Guangdong. Keep the calculation base, medical-period status and minimum-wage comparison separate. Ask payroll to show the wage period, normal or contractual base used, included and excluded items, sick days, work days, other leave, statutory floor, tax and social-insurance treatment and final payment. A medical certificate proves neither the amount nor payment. Medical insurance reimbursement pays eligible healthcare costs under a different system and is not sick-leave wage or disease-relief pay.

Guangzhou: current monthly minimum wage CNY 2,500; 80% full-month floor comparison CNY 2,000.

Protect medical and health information

Medical and health information is sensitive personal information. The employer should identify a specific purpose and lawful processing basis, collect only what is sufficiently necessary, provide the required notice, limit access, protect transmission and retain the data no longer than necessary. If consent is the processing basis relied on, the separate-consent requirement for sensitive information must be considered. Avoid a shared manager inbox, open attendance spreadsheet or unrestricted personnel file containing diagnosis details.

For routine administration, the employer often needs identity, encounter and issue dates, issuing institution, recommended rest period, functional restriction and verification details rather than an unlimited medical history. A full outpatient or inpatient record may be requested only where genuinely necessary and proportionate, such as resolving a material inconsistency, and should be handled through a controlled channel. Keep the medical evidence file separate from the ordinary payroll extract and provide payroll only the classification and data needed to calculate pay.

Preserve the work-injury and occupational-disease boundary

This guide addresses ordinary illness or non-work injury. If symptoms may result from an accident at work, an occupational exposure, a statutory occupational disease or a qualifying commuting event, open the work-injury route immediately and preserve its deadlines and evidence. Work-injury recognition, occupational-disease diagnosis, agreement-provider treatment and suspension-of-work-with-pay are separate processes. Do not recode a potentially work-related event as ordinary sick leave merely because the employer has not yet made a report or the diagnosis is incomplete.

Likewise, an ordinary diagnosis certificate does not prove work causation and a disputed work-injury claim does not allow the employee or employer to invent a category. Record the event facts, first visit, job duties, exposure and notices; seek current authority guidance; and keep interim attendance and pay decisions traceable. The sick-leave wage rules in this guide should not be described as the pay rule for a recognised work injury or occupational disease, because Guangdong work-injury law uses a different suspension-of-work-with-pay framework.

Prepare return to work as a role-specific record

Before the planned return, ask the employee for an updated treating-clinician recommendation where the duration, treatment, safety-sensitive role or stated restriction makes it reasonably necessary. Translate the recommendation into functional questions: hours, lifting, standing, driving, night work, travel, hazardous exposure, infection control or follow-up appointments. The clinician provides clinical information; the employer assesses the actual job and workplace risk; a labor-capacity body performs only the statutory assessment assigned to it. These are not the same decision.

Guangzhou's current publicly identified non-work illness capacity-assessment route is specifically tied to sickness and disability allowance. It should not be rewritten as a mandatory return-to-work examination for every employee. When job fitness is genuinely disputed, obtain current advice from Guangzhou HRSS or a qualified professional rather than relying on expired 2011 municipal procedures. There is no verified universal rule requiring every Guangzhou employee to obtain one standard “fit for work” certificate after ordinary sick leave. Employer practice should be proportionate, consistently applied and lawfully communicated. Record the employee's proposed return date, current restrictions, job description, risk review, temporary adjustment, review date and response. Do not demand a cure, unrestricted fitness or the complete diagnosis history where a narrower functional restriction would answer the legitimate workplace question.

Handle the medical-period end before any employment decision

During the statutory medical period, Labor Contract Law Article 42 protects the employee from ordinary termination under Articles 40 and 41, and Article 45 may extend a fixed-term contract until the protected circumstance ends. The protection is important but not absolute immunity from every other statutory ground, including a properly established Article 39 ground. Before any decision, verify the employee's tier, accumulation ledger, certificate and leave record, pay record, policy validity and whether the medical period has actually ended.

After the medical period, Article 40(1) does not permit immediate termination merely because the calendar threshold was reached. The employer must address whether the employee can perform the original work and, if not, whether the employee can perform other work arranged by the employer. Preserve the job demands, current functional evidence, discussion and concrete alternative-work offer. Only if the statutory conditions are met does the thirty-day written-notice or one-additional-month-wage route arise, together with economic compensation where required. Union notification, written termination reasons, certificate and record-transfer duties may also apply.

Medical-period expiry is a review point, not an automatic dismissal date.

Keep employment, work-permit and residence actions separate

Guangzhou states that an employer applies to cancel a foreigner's work permit within ten working days after employment actually ends early or the contract ends. Illness absence and the statutory medical period do not automatically end employment, extend a work permit or renew a residence permit; employment, work-permit and residence records must be handled separately. HR should calendar the independent expiration dates and identify which authority controls each record. A fixed-term labor contract may be extended by the Labor Contract Law while the employee remains in the protected medical-period circumstance, but that does not automatically extend an immigration document. Conversely, a work-permit expiry does not by itself answer wage arrears or the lawfulness of an employment decision.

If employment actually ends, preserve the signed or served employment document, final payroll and compensation calculation, termination certificate, social-insurance and personnel-record transfer evidence, work-permit cancellation submission and residence follow-up. Do not submit a cancellation merely to make a leave dispute disappear, and do not tell the employee that sickness alone cancelled the permit. Where dates conflict or continued lawful stay is uncertain, confirm the employment position with HRSS or qualified counsel and the work- and residence-permit position with the responsible science-and-technology and public-security authorities.

Use the correct Guangzhou complaint and dispute route

For wage-payment enforcement or consultation, Guangzhou publishes 020-12333, 020-12345 and district labor-inspection contacts. For a disputed individual right, use the competent labor arbitration committee. Since 1 December 2025, foreign, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan claimants follow the ordinary city and district jurisdiction allocation rather than automatic city-level centralisation. The national general arbitration period is one year from when the party knew or should have known of the rights infringement, subject to statutory interruption and suspension rules. During a continuing labor relationship, the special wage-arrears rule may apply, but after termination a wage claim should be filed within one year. Do not assume an HR appeal, hotline call, inspection inquiry or mediation request preserves every arbitration claim.

Build a claim-by-claim evidence index: contract and employer identity; work-permit and passport linkage; employer leave rule and proof it was notified; each medical document and submission receipt; attendance; medical-period ledger; wage agreement, payslips and bank entries; communications; return-to-work record; original and alternative job evidence; termination notice and compensation. The employer may bear an adverse consequence if it controls material evidence and does not produce it. Foreign-language and outside-China evidence may need Chinese translation and formal evidence treatment, so confirm the current recipient requirements before filing.

Audit current sources and reject obsolete local shortcuts

Do not rely on the Guangzhou 1995 forwarding notice for a current local entitlement: the official policy database marks that instrument expired in 2000. Likewise, older Guangzhou general sickness labor-capacity procedures are marked expired. The current guide therefore uses the national medical-period matrix, the current Guangdong wage regulation and current Guangzhou service material. Save a PDF or screenshot of the current rule and service page used for the decision, record the access date and schedule a recheck before payroll, return-to-work or termination action. Minimum wages, platform routes, jurisdiction allocations and work-permit procedures can change even when the national medical-period matrix remains stable.

This Guangzhou guide is city-specific and must not be generalised to another city. Guangzhou applies the Guangdong contract, collective-agreement or national-rule structure with an eighty-percent local-minimum floor; Shenzhen has a municipal sixty-percent normal-working-time-wage comparison plus the eighty-percent minimum-wage floor. Another city may have a different wage base, service rule or current instrument. Where an employer, authority or professional gives a different current rule, request the title, issuing body, article, effective date and application to the facts before changing the file.