The holidays are probably the most eagerly awaited time of the year. It doesn’t matter whether it’s to visit family, travel to the other side of the world, spend afternoons on the beach or relax at home with that book you’ve been meaning to read. However, when it comes to booking these days’ holiday There are many doubts.
In this post, we explain what the law says about days’ holiday in Spain, what is the difference between working days and calendar days, and how do you calculate them? Are you interested in this topic? Read on!
The Workers’ Statute on annual leave
In Spain, the rules governing annual leave are primarily laid down by the Article 38 of the Workers’ Statute. Here are five key points you need to be aware of, according to the law:
Duration
Workers are entitled to a minimum period of paid annual leave of 30 calendar days. This is the minimum period laid down by law, but collective agreements may provide for longer periods.
Determining the period of entitlement
The period of use shall be determined in accordance with between the employer and the employee, as set out in their collective agreement on annual holiday planning. In the event of a disagreement, the employee and the employer may refer the matter to the labour court to determine the holiday period.
Setting the timetable
The holiday schedule must be set by each company. The employee you need to know the dates which must be due to him at least two months before the start of the leave.
Proportionality
If the employment contract begins or ends during the year, the employee will be entitled to the proportional share holiday entitlement based on the number of hours worked during that year.
Holidays and special circumstances
If the holiday period corresponds to a period of temporary incapacity In the event of circumstances other than those mentioned above which prevent the employee from taking all or part of their leave during the calendar year to which it relates, the employee may take it once their incapacity has ended, provided that no more than eighteen months have elapsed since the end of the year in which the circumstances arose.
In the event of leave for maternity, paternity, risk during pregnancy or risk during breastfeeding, the employee is entitled to take such leave for a a different period, even if the calendar year to which they relate has ended.
What is the difference between working days and calendar days?
In an employment context, it is important to distinguish between working days and calendar days, as this distinction may affect the calculation of days’ holiday. The calendar days These are all the days on the calendar, from Monday to Sunday, including public holidays. Meanwhile, the working days These are the days on which people usually work, generally excluding weekends and public holidays. In most cases, working days are considered to be Monday to Friday.
However, if you’re going to request holiday leave, you need to check how it’s worded in your contract. If it’s in calendar days and you have 30 days’ holiday, you may be off work for a full month including weekends and public holidays.
On the other hand, if the holidays are expressed in working days and you have 22 days’ holiday You’ll be able to enjoy this number of days, but only counting Monday to Friday, and excluding public holidays.
Find out how to work out your holiday entitlement in working days
To calculate holiday entitlement in working days, a process is followed that generally involves converting calendar days into working days, given that in many collective agreements Holidays are specified in terms of working days. But let’s look at how this works in practice.
The first thing is calculate the total number of working days. A year has 365 days (366 in a leap year). Then, we subtract the number of weekends (Saturdays and Sundays): 52 weeks × 2 days = 104 days (or 105 days in a leap year). If there are national, regional or local public holidays, these are also deducted. Let’s assume there are 14 public holidays in total. The result is 247 working days a year.
Now, let’s take the case of someone who He started working from January to June. We need to work out how many days he has been with the company. In this case, we divide the 6 months by the 12 months in the whole year, and multiply the result by 247 (the number of working days in a year). This gives us has worked a total of 123.5 days.
Finally, it is important to be aware of proportionally how many days’ holiday they are entitled to. To work this out, we divide the number of days worked (123.5) by the number of working days in the year (247). We then multiply this by 22, which is usually the number of days’ holiday per year specified in collective agreements. The formula is as follows: (123.5/247)*22. If we do the maths, the worker is entitled to 11 working days’ holiday.
Can you swap your holiday entitlement for paid working days?
We’ve already told you the answer is no. In Spain, according to the Workers’ Statute, It is not permitted to substitute annual leave compensated by financial payment, except in the event of the termination of the employment contract. Annual leave is a inalienable right of workers and cannot be replaced by financial compensation, even with the worker’s consent.
The aim of this measure is to ensure that workers get adequate rest and recover their strength, which is beneficial both for their well-being staff as well as for its work performance.
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