Do holidays carry over from one year to the next?

December arrives, you go through the figures and discover that an employee still has seven days of holiday left to take. Are they lost? Can they be carried over to January? And what if you were running on a tight team and there was simply no way to grant them? It is one of the most common questions in any small business as the end of the year approaches. Let us clear it up with what Spanish law and current case law actually say, no beating around the bush.

Can holidays be lost from one year to the next?

The general rule is clear. Article 38 of the Estatuto de los Trabajadores (the Spanish Workers’ Statute) establishes that holidays must be taken within the calendar year to which they correspond. In Spain the legal minimum is 30 calendar days per year worked (equivalent to roughly 22 working days), which may be extended by collective agreement.

This means that, as a rule, holidays do not carry over from one year to the next: if by 31 December an employee has not taken the days they were entitled to, in principle they lose them. It does not automatically generate a right to roll them over to January, nor to have them paid out in cash while the employment relationship is still live (financial compensation for holidays is only due when the contract is terminated).

That said, “as a rule” is not the same as “always”. There are important exceptions, and European and Spanish case law have qualified this rule considerably in recent years.

Special cases where holidays can be carried over

These are the situations in which a worker can take their holidays outside the calendar year without losing them:

1. Sick leave, pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding

This is the most common case and the most protected. If the holiday period coincides with temporary incapacity (sick leave due to illness or accident) or with a suspension for pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding, the worker is entitled to take them once that situation ends, even if the calendar year is already over.

The limit was set by the Court of Justice of the EU: in the case of long-term leave, the right to holidays is not maintained indefinitely. A carry-over period of around 18 months from the end of the year in which they were accrued is accepted. Beyond that margin, they can indeed lapse.

2. When the company prevents the employee from taking them

This is the big development of recent years. The CJEU made it clear that holidays do not lapse automatically simply because they were not requested. For a worker to lose their days, the company has to prove that it:

• Clearly informed them of the outstanding holiday days they had left.
• Expressly invited them to take those days in good time.
• Warned them that, if they did not, they would lose them at the end of the period.

If the company does not fulfil this duty of information and “diligence”, the employee does not lose the unused holidays, even if the calendar year has passed. The burden of proof falls on the company, not on the worker.

This has an enormous practical consequence for any small business: if you do not keep an orderly record of holiday balances and do not warn your staff, you can end up carrying over pools of accumulated days for years.

3. By agreement between company and worker

Nothing prevents a company and an employee from agreeing to move a few days to the following year for organisational reasons (a workload peak, a campaign, a leave of absence that has to be covered). Many collective agreements regulate this expressly and set the cut-off month of the following year by which the days can be taken (usually 31 January, sometimes 31 March). It is always advisable to put it in writing.

What about unused holidays when the contract ends?

Pay close attention to this point, because it is where the most claims arise. If the employment relationship ends (end of contract, dismissal, voluntary resignation) and the worker has accrued holidays they have not taken, the company is obliged to pay them in the final settlement (finiquito). Those days are not lost: they are paid out in cash, in proportion to the time worked.

The calculation is simple: divide the number of annual holiday days by 365 and multiply by the days actually worked in the year, subtracting those already taken. A common mistake in small businesses is to settle that proportion incorrectly, which can end in a claim for unpaid amounts.

How to organise holidays so they are not lost?

The best way to avoid problems (and claims) is not to let balances spiral out of control. Some practical guidelines:

• Set out the calendar at the start of the year. Ask each employee to plan their holidays in advance and approve a shared calendar to avoid overlaps in the critical months.
• Warn before they expire. Remind anyone with outstanding days to take them before the end of the year. This warning, as well as being good practice, is what protects you legally against a later claim.
• Keep a reliable record of balances. Knowing in real time how many days each person has taken and how many they have left avoids surprises in December and errors in the final settlement.
• Put agreements in writing. If you agree to move days to the following year, make sure it is documented.

Managing all of this in an Excel spreadsheet works until the team grows, requests start to cross over and no one remembers who approved what. A holiday management software automates requests, calculates balances on its own and alerts you when someone is about to lose days. And if you also connect it to time tracking, you have in one place who is working, who is off and how many days are left in the pot, without reconciling anything by hand.

In summary

• Holidays are taken within the calendar year and, as a rule, they do not carry over to the next one.
• Exceptions: sick leave/pregnancy (up to around 18 months), impossibility caused by the company, or an agreement between the parties.
• If the company did not warn in time about the outstanding days, the worker does not lose them.
• When the contract ends, unused holidays are paid out in the final settlement.

The key is control: whoever keeps their balances up to date does not lose days, does not generate claims and does not reach December doing desperate calculations.