The Forgotten Workday In A Leap-Year

Many employees will probably not realise that in a leap-year, as 2020 has been with 29 days in February, it is very well possible that with this day you exceed the maximum amount of work hours as established for your job in either your contract or your convenio. If this is the case, your employer has to compensate you for this day, either with a paid holiday day or with corresponding extra wages.

As any extra workdays on an anual basis can only be calculated in December and if you have not received an extra paid holiday day during the year, your nomina for December should include an extra day´’s worth of salary if indeed you’ve exceeded the maximum anual amount of work hours ´jornada maxima annual´.

If you want to know whether you’ve worked any ´extra days´ during 2020 so should be entitled to extra wages, you can use this online calculator.

The calculator works with the assumption that you’ve had the legal minimum of 30 calendar days as paid holiday, plus 14 public holidays (full time employment). If you haven’t had them in full, you will have to add them on to the result of the calculation to get to the true number of extra days worked.

You can enter 2 variables with regards to hours worked per week as many workers have different schedules during summer or winter months for example.

You will need to calculate with the lowest ´jornada maxima annual´. Either the one mentioned in your contract or in the convenio that applies to your line of work.

If you conclude that you’ve indeed exceeded the ´jornada maxima annual´ and you don´t receive the corresponding wages in December, and your employer is not responsive when you speak to him about this, you are entitled to claim them through the appropiate ´court´, as explained in this info file from the Library on our website.

CAB Spain is here to inform you of your rights, up to you of course if you think it´s worth the time and effort to pursue 🙂

Please note: The information provided is based upon our understanding of current legislation. It is not legal advice but is provided freely to enable you to be properly informed. We recommend that if you are considering taking action, you should seek professional advice.