Spanish Supreme Court Bans Reducing Annual Leave Due to Maternity Leave. The Spanish Supreme Court has ruled that maternity leave cannot reduce the number of days of annual vacation. This decision applies to everyone taking parental leave and changes how companies calculate leave entitlements. The issue has become crucial for labor rights.
The Supreme Court of Spain has put an end to the dispute over whether employers have the right to reduce the annual leave for employees who were on parental leave. It is now officially confirmed: the time spent on parental leave must be counted when calculating vacation days, even if the employee was not performing their usual work duties.
Previously, companies and courts interpreted this issue differently. In Catalonia, the court sided with the employer, considering that the period of parental leave does not count as working time and does not entitle employees to accrue vacation days. However, in Madrid, judges took the opposite stance, stating that maternity or parental leave should not deprive employees of their right to full vacation.
Supreme Court decision
The key decision was made after a collective lawsuit filed by the Associació Professional de Facultatius Mutua de Terrasa and the Sindicat de Metges de Catalunya. The organizations demanded that the practice of limiting vacation for employees on parental leave be declared unlawful. The Supreme Court upheld their position and overturned the previous ruling of the Catalonian court.
The judges emphasized: if a company reduces vacation due to parental leave, this can lead to discrimination, especially against women, who are more likely to take such leave. The Supreme Court directly stated that such a practice may be considered indirect discrimination on the basis of gender.
What changes for employees and companies
Employers are now required to count maternity leave as working time when calculating annual leave. This means that neither maternity leave nor parental leave can reduce the number of vacation days. The decision applies to all companies and protects employees' rights to family life and rest.
The Supreme Court reminded: Article 48 bis of the Spanish Labor Code explicitly states that the period of parental leave is an exception to the general rule and must be considered as working time for the purposes of annual leave.
Context and significance of the decision
This decision is especially important for women, who more often face challenges in balancing work and family. The court has effectively established that the right to leave cannot depend on family circumstances. For companies, this means they need to review their internal regulations and vacation calculation practices.
Labor rights and annual leave calculations in Spain are frequently a source of dispute. For example, risks associated with errors in tax returns and the consequences of delays in correcting them have previously been discussed — you can read more about this in the article on fines for errors in the Spanish income tax return.
The Supreme Court's decision on maternity leave could become a precedent for other labor disputes concerning work-life balance. For employees, it's an additional guarantee of rights protection, and for employers, a signal to review HR policies.
