August 15 is a date marked every year on the work calendar, one of the holidays shared by all autonomous communities. This year it falls on a Saturday. According to a ruling issued by the National Court and announced this Wednesday, customer service companies must compensate for it if it overlaps with the worker’s weekly rest. The ruling, which can be appealed before the Supreme Court, responds to a conflict between several unions and the Customer Experience Companies Association (CEX), the employers’ association of customer service centers. However, it paves the way for the same logic to extend to many other sectors.
The ruling declares as “not lawful” the “widespread” practice of companies in the sector of “not establishing compensation for public holidays with the weekly rest days or previously assigned days off.” It specifies that the scenario analyzed refers to “when the effective provision of services takes place from Monday to Friday or Monday to Saturday and the holiday coincides with Saturday, with the weekly rest fixed there.” That is, when the holiday falls on a Saturday.
Given that scenario, the Social Chamber of the National Court declares the right of workers “that public holidays are not absorbed or neutralized by the weekly rest, recognizing the employer’s obligation to grant an additional day of effective rest when there is a coincidence or overlap between both.”
“It is true that there is no rule that imposes the enjoyment of compensation in that period, but if we take into account that at the beginning of each year the national and regional holidays are already known, it would not make sense that workers whose rest does not coincide with a holiday on Saturday can enjoy such compensation while those whose rest does coincide have their compensation day delayed at the company’s discretion and for an indefinite period,” the ruling highlights.
The court holds that the ruling analyzes the situation of the customer service sector. The CC OO union, which has participated in the conflict, emphasizes that the “direct effects” of the ruling are limited to those companies, but at the same time qualifies: “It may have reach beyond this sector and serve to review similar situations in other areas of activity, especially when holidays coincide with days off without effective compensation.” This practice is also common in commerce or hospitality. The USO union goes further and interprets that “with this resolution, the judicial doctrine that prevents companies from making holidays disappear through work schedules is generally consolidated.”
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Compensation, according to the National Court, must be given within a period not exceeding two weeks. “No worker should lose holidays due to the way the company organizes the calendar. The 14 annual holidays must be fully enjoyed by all workers, regardless of their usual working hours,” says Sara García, Secretary of Union Action and Employment of USO, in statements provided by the union.
CC OO specifies that the Supreme Court jurisprudence already distinguishes between holidays and weekly rest days as two different concepts, with different purposes. “Weekly rest protects occupational health and the recovery of the worker, while holidays guarantee the enjoyment of dates of special civic, religious, or social relevance. Therefore, a holiday cannot be absorbed by the weekly rest when both coincide,” reflects the union.
Specifically, the trade unions support their collective conflict claims ―which have been resolved in just two months from the first one filed by USO last April 13 until the ruling issued this Monday, May 19, after a prior attempt at conciliation― on a ruling issued in April 2025 by the high court on the “overlap of weekly rest” in the Zara textile chain. Although CEX argued that the cases were not comparable, the court considers that they are because the Supreme Court uses that specific case to “reiterate” doctrine.
Thus, it concludes that the “general principle” is that holidays that coincide with weekly rest must be considered not enjoyed and must be compensated. “That overlap must be avoided, regardless of the adjustments that must be made in the preparation of annual calendars,” the National Court concludes.
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