In Spain, employers can no longer exclude payment for weekends from the final settlement when dismissing an employee on a Friday. This decision was made by the Audiencia Nacional, confirming that if an employee worked the entire week, their right to paid weekly rest remains, even if the contract is terminated at the end of the workweek. This means the final settlement must include not only the actual days worked but also Saturday and Sunday if they were earned through work during the week.
The essence of the issue is that, according to the Estatuto de los Trabajadores, every employee is entitled to at least one and a half days of uninterrupted weekly rest. This rest accumulates during the regular workweek, just like the daily wage. Therefore, if the contract ends on a Friday, the employer must also include the weekend in the calculation if it was earned by working from Monday to Friday.
Legal position
The case was reviewed after one company failed to include in the final payment the portion of salary relating to the weekly rest that was earned during the employee’s last week of work. In practice, the situation looked like this: the employee worked from Monday to Friday, was dismissed on Friday, and the company paid only for those five days, ignoring the weekend. However, the court pointed out that the right to rest had already been earned and could not simply be excluded from the calculation.
The employer tried to justify their position by stating that the salary is accrued monthly and already includes all days of the month, regardless of the number of weekends and holidays. However, the Audiencia Nacional rejected this argument, referring to Article 26 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores, which clearly states: salary includes not only payment for actual work performed, but also for rest periods, which are considered part of working hours. In conjunction with the provisions of Article 37, the court concluded that paid weekly rest is accumulated throughout the week as work is performed.
What to check when being dismissed
For employees dismissed on a Friday, it is now especially important to carefully review the final settlement. Itβs essential not only to check whether all days worked have been accounted for, but also to ensure that the proportional part of the weekly rest payment is included. This means that for each working day of the week, the employee accrues not only the daily wage but also a portion of the weekend pay.
When analyzing the final settlement, pay attention to the following points:
- Whether the salary has been paid for all actual days worked during the week;
- Whether the proportional part of the weekly rest payment is included;
- Whether Saturday and Sunday, if earned, are included in the calculation;
- Whether there are any other deductions or omissions of already accrued amounts.
Therefore, if the employee worked the entire week, the final settlement should reflect not only the working days but also the weekends earned through labor during the week.
Court decision and further steps
The Audiencia Nacional has ordered the company to stop excluding weekend pay from final settlements and to recalculate payments for the past year, adding 10% annual interest as compensation. However, the decision has not yet taken full effect: the employer still has the option to appeal to the Tribunal Supremo, so a final resolution on this matter has yet to be reached.
Issues related to labor payments and employee rights protection in Spain are frequently subject to legal proceedings. For example, a well-known restaurant in Tarifa was recently closed after a lease renewal was denied, which also affected the staff and the terms of their dismissal β you can learn more about this in the article about the closure of the Atxa gastro project.
As Talent24h notes, the court’s new clarification emphasizes that when an employment relationship ends at the end of the week, the employer is not permitted to ignore the employee’s right to paid rest. This ruling could impact payroll practices in many companies across the country.
