Annual leave and employee rights you should know about

Under the Spanish Workers’ Statute, a company must determine the period during which annual leave is to be taken by mutual agreement with its employees and in accordance with the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

Therefore, the first step is to check whether the applicable collective bargaining agreement regulates this matter. For example, an agreement may provide that at least 15 days of annual leave must be taken between June and September, or that 21 days must be taken consecutively.

Accordingly, if the collective bargaining agreement establishes specific periods during which annual leave must be taken, the company must comply with them. However, if it merely establishes preferred periods, the company will not be bound by them in the same way. In the latter case, the company may demonstrate that there are reasons for not following those preferences, for example, because it experiences higher levels of activity during a particular period or needs to meet the requirements of a specific client.

In any event, even if the collective bargaining agreement does not establish specific periods for taking annual leave, it is not valid for the employment contract to establish a fixed period. As a general rule, when determining the specific dates on which employees will take their annual leave, the following should be taken into account:

• The company must determine annual leave dates by mutual agreement with employees. It is therefore advisable to include the company’s proposed annual leave dates when preparing the work calendar, providing a draft to employee representatives or, where there are no representatives, directly to the employees concerned. The law requires annual leave to be negotiated, although it does not require the parties to reach an agreement.
• If an employee holds a particular position or has specific circumstances, their annual leave may be agreed individually. However, such an agreement cannot be established indefinitely or for subsequent years.
• The employment contract may establish the exclusion or inclusion of a preferred period for taking annual leave, provided that the reason is justified. In the event of a disagreement, the company will then be able to argue that the employee was aware of these preferences.

In any event, there will be no dispute if the company temporarily closes the workplace every year, for example, for three weeks in August, suspending production and therefore preventing employees from carrying out their work.

If the employees concerned do not accept the annual leave period proposed by the company, the company may set it unilaterally. Once the dates have been established, employees must be informed at least two months before their leave begins. If they disagree, they may bring a claim before the courts through a special expedited procedure.

Under Spanish law, employees must be informed of their annual leave dates at least two months before the leave begins. If no agreement is reached, the company may unilaterally determine the period in which leave is to be taken, provided that the proposed dates are reasonable.

In this regard:

• It may be reasonable to limit annual leave during the summer in order to avoid bringing production to a standstill and to continue providing services to clients.
• The company may also refuse a request if, for example, it is experiencing financial difficulties and accepting the employees’ proposed leave dates would require hiring temporary replacement staff to maintain production. In such cases, the company may argue that these additional hires would worsen its financial situation.

It is also common for two or more employees to request annual leave during the same period when the company is unable to accommodate all requests, for example, because certain tasks would otherwise remain uncovered. In these cases:

• The collective bargaining agreement may establish criteria for determining priority when choosing annual leave dates, for example, for employees with family responsibilities or based on seniority.
• If the collective bargaining agreement does not establish any criteria and no agreement can be reached with the employees concerned, allocating annual leave dates by drawing lots has been considered valid.

Ultimately, the company may determine the dates on which annual leave is to be taken provided that its decision is reasonable, in accordance with the circumstances outlined above. If the collective bargaining agreement does not provide a solution and the parties cannot reach an agreement, the employee may bring the matter before the courts through the special expedited procedure mentioned above.

In either of these situations, the company may ask an employee to remain at work in order to continue providing the service. If the company has not yet agreed the employee’s annual leave dates, it should proceed as follows:

• Inform the employee in writing of the proposed annual leave dates, complying with the requirement to provide at least two months’ notice and explaining the organisational reasons for proposing those dates.
• If the employee does not accept the dates, the company must notify them that the dates are final.

However, there is a specific judicial procedure for resolving disagreements regarding annual leave. Employees may file a claim before the Social Court within 20 days. The hearing must take place within the following five days and the judgment must be issued within three days, although in practice these deadlines are not always met. No appeal may be lodged against the judgment.

If the company can justify the organisational reasons behind its decision and the proposed dates fall within the periods generally established by the collective bargaining agreement, the court is likely to dismiss the claim.

If annual leave has already been scheduled and communicated but the company subsequently needs to change it, and there are still more than two months before the leave begins, the company should bear the following in mind:

• It may proceed in the same way as when initially setting annual leave dates. In other words, it should attempt to reach an agreement on the new dates and, if the employees concerned do not accept them, the company may impose the new dates unilaterally.
• Employees may once again challenge this decision. However, if the company can demonstrate the economic or production-related reasons justifying the measure, the challenge is unlikely to succeed.

Furthermore, the fact that annual leave has been taken in August, or during any other specific period, in previous years is not considered a more beneficial condition. Employees therefore cannot rely on the fact that they have always taken their annual leave during the same period as grounds for maintaining those dates.

If fewer than two months remain before the start of the annual leave period, the company may only implement the change if the employees voluntarily agree to it.

This is because the law requires employees to know their annual leave dates at least two months in advance, allowing them to coordinate with their families, plan trips and make other arrangements. Once the annual leave dates have been agreed, they provide employees with certainty so that they can properly plan their rest period.

Therefore, the company cannot implement the change unilaterally, even through a substantial modification of working conditions.

The company must therefore attempt to reach an agreement or offer an appropriate concession if covering the service during those weeks is genuinely essential. However, it should be remembered that employees must take the rest days to which they are entitled and that the law does not allow annual leave to be replaced by salary. This substitution is not permitted even if the employee agrees to it.

If an employee has been on sick leave for part of the year and has now been declared fit to return to work, the company cannot reduce the duration of their annual leave. Throughout the entire period of temporary incapacity for work, the employee continues to accrue annual leave entitlement.

Specifically:

• If the temporary incapacity began during the current year, the employee will still be entitled to 30 days of annual leave during that year, or the number of days established in the applicable collective bargaining agreement.
• If the temporary incapacity began in the previous year, has continued until now and prevented the employee from taking all or part of their annual leave for the corresponding year, they may take the outstanding leave within 18 months following the end of the year in which it accrued.
• If the temporary incapacity is related to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding, or if the leave relates to birth, adoption or foster care, there is no time limit for taking the corresponding annual leave.

Therefore, by way of example, if it is not convenient for the company for the employee concerned to accumulate, during the current year 2026, the outstanding annual leave from 2025 together with the leave accrued in 2026, the parties may agree that the outstanding 2025 leave will be taken by 30 June 2027.

It should be remembered that the new annual leave dates must be established by mutual agreement between the company and the employee. If an employee submits confirmation that they are fit to return to work but does not actually return, claiming that they are taking previously untaken annual leave, the company may take disciplinary action against them.

If an employee goes on sick leave while taking annual leave, they will be entitled to take the affected annual leave at a later date, once they have returned to work, within 18 months following the end of the corresponding year and subject to the conditions outlined above.

The same applies if the sick leave begins before the annual leave period but overlaps with it in whole or in part.