Vacations are probably the most anticipated time of the year. It doesn’t matter if it’s to visit family, travel across the world, spend afternoons at the beach, or relax at home with that book you’ve been meaning to read. However, when it comes time to request those vacation days, many doubts arise.
In this post, we explain what the law says about vacation days in Spain, the difference between working and calendar days, and how to calculate them. Interested in this topic? Keep reading!
In Spain, the regulation of work vacations is mainly established by the Article 38 of the Workers’ Statute. These are five key points you should know according to the law:
Employees are entitled to a minimum period of 30 calendar days of paid annual vacation. This is the minimum established by law, but collective bargaining agreements may set longer periods.
The vacation period will be determined by mutual agreement between the employer and the employee, as established in the collective agreement regarding annual vacation planning. In the event of disagreement, the worker and employer may turn to the labor courts to determine the vacation period.
Each company must set its own vacation calendar. The employee must be informed of their dates at least two months before the start of their vacation period.
If the employment contract begins or ends during the year, the employee will be entitled to a proportional part of the vacation days based on the time worked during that year.
If the vacation period coincides with a temporary disability due to causes other than those previously mentioned, preventing the employee from taking their vacation totally or partially during the corresponding calendar year, they may do so once the disability ends, provided that no more than eighteen months have passed since the end of the year in which the vacation originated.
In the case of maternity leave, paternity leave, risk during pregnancy, or risk during breastfeeding, the employee is entitled to take their vacation at a different time, even if the calendar year to which it corresponds has ended.
In the workplace, it’s important to distinguish between working days and calendar days, as this difference can affect the calculation of vacation days. Calendar days are all the days in the calendar —from Monday to Sunday— including holidays. Meanwhile, working days are those usually worked, generally excluding weekends and public holidays. In most cases, working days are considered to be Monday through Friday.
Now, when requesting your vacation days, you must check how they are expressed in your contract. If they are in calendar days and you have 30 vacation days, you can be away from work for a full month, including weekends and holidays.
On the other hand, if the vacation days are expressed in working days and you have 22 vacation days, you can enjoy that number of days, but only counting Monday to Friday and excluding holidays.
To calculate vacation days in working days, the process generally involves converting calendar days to working days, since in many collective agreements, vacations are set in working days. Let’s see how it works in practice.
First, you need to calculate the total working days. A year has 365 days (366 in a leap year). Then, subtract the number of weekends (Saturdays and Sundays): 52 weeks × 2 days = 104 days (or 105 in a leap year). If there are national, regional, or local holidays, subtract those too. Let’s assume there are 14 holidays in total. The result is 247 working days per year.
Now, let’s take the case of someone who started working from January to June. You must calculate how many days they have been employed. In this case, we divide the 6 months by the 12 months of the full year and multiply the result by 247 (the total working days per year). We find that the employee has worked a total of 123.5 days.
Finally, we must determine proportionally how many vacation days they are entitled to. To do this, divide the number of days worked (123.5) by the total working days of the year (247). Then, multiply the result by 22, which is the usual number of vacation days per year set in most collective agreements. The formula is: (123.5/247)*22. Performing the calculation, the employee is entitled to 11 working days of vacation.
We’ll tell you right away: no. In Spain, according to the Workers’ Statute, it is not permitted to replace annual paid vacations with financial compensation, except when the employment contract ends. Annual vacations are an inalienable right of workers and cannot be replaced by monetary compensation, even with the employee’s consent.
This rule aims to ensure that employees enjoy proper rest and recover their energy, which benefits both their personal well-being and their job performance.
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