Teachers’ holidays in Spain. Rights and duties.

So, I’ve been asked a lot about teachers’ holidays, their rights and the convenio as of late. I suppose it’s that time of the year. And again I’m astounded at the lack of knowledge there is.

Therefore, I’m going to share some facts about this issue. I’m not going to go too much into them, as every case is different. You will have to talk to your employers. But at least you will have the basics when you talk to them.

I will be adding facts and FAQ as they come up (or I can think of them). So this article will be updated.

Teachers’ holidays in Spain. Rights and duties.

• The convenio (our Colective Agreement) dictates we have 30 natural days per year worked (or the equivalent proportion): «Todos los trabajadores afectados por el presente Convenio disfrutarán de un mes de vacaciones retribuidas al año o la parte proporcional al tiempo trabajado.»
• The proportion is calculated with 2,5 natural days per month worked.
• That is supposing you work every day of the month. Many teachers don’t (for the same place). So if you work, lets say, every Monday for an academy, at the end of the month (4 Mondays) you still need to work 16 more days to make up a whole month. You would need to work 5 months (of 1 day a week) to make up a whole working month and have a right to the 2,5 days.
• Apart from the convenio, contracts have to follow the «Statute of Workers Rights «. So both have to be taken into account. When one doesn’t specify something, you have to see what the other says.
• This is regardless of the amount of hours you work. So if you work two hours a day, every day, for a month, you have the right to take 2,5 days off.
• It’s also regardless of the type of contract. Fijo discontinuo has holidays too. Although is very frequent to stop the contract for the summer and have the worker get his «paro» that month.
• Holidays have to be taken when the academy/school is closed or at periods of low activity. Preferably during the summer. «Se disfrutarán en los períodos de menor actividad empresarial, preferentemente en verano.»
  So teachers can’t just decide, on their own, when they want to go on holiday. The convenio specifies when they have a right to enjoy the holidays. It’s part of the job.
•  The holiday calendar must be provided by the center at least two months in advance. «A tal efecto la
  empresa fijará con antelación de, al menos dos meses, el calendario, los turnos, etc.»
• Broadly speaking, Easter Holidays and Christmas holidays are just the days when the center/academy/school is closed for students. With a minimum of 4 days a year.
• Every teacher has a right to holidays independently of the type of contract and the hours taught.
• You have a right to take certain number of days off for things like getting married, death of a near relative etc. Check the Labour Agreement for more information about the number of days.
• It’s alway a good idea to talk with your employer about holidays before summer.

FAQ.

• Natural days.  This means weekends count. So if you take 2 weeks off, Monday to Sunday, your will have to subtract 14 days from the 30, not 10 (which would correspond to work days). Some convenios talk about 24 work days, but ours clearly says a month, not work days. So be careful if you take, say Thursday to Wednesday. That’s 7 days, not 5!
  August has 31 days….so really the center has a right to make you work 1 day in August (few do).

I would recommend academies to have all this information on a teacher’s handbook (we have), to hand it out to teachers and make every point clear before hiring someone, so the don’t have any doubts when summer comes.