Ignacio de la Calzada, a Spanish labor lawyer known on social media for explaining workers' rights, says nine out of ten employees do not realize they can claim unpaid vacation days after being dismissed. He said the claim applies to vacation time that was never taken and never paid out in the final settlement, known in Spain as the finiquito.
De la Calzada said the Court of Justice of the European Union and several Spanish courts, including cases handled by his own firm, have issued rulings recognizing that workers can claim all the vacation days they never used at a company, regardless of how many years have passed.
Why unused vacation does not simply expire
De la Calzada addressed the common assumption that vacation days are lost at the end of each calendar year. He said that is not true. A worker only loses the right to vacation when the employer has specifically pushed the employee to take time off, for example by setting a date for the vacation, and the employee still did not take it.
In any other situation, he said, the worker keeps the right to take that vacation later or, if dismissed, to claim it and be paid for it. He described a typical scenario: an employee is fired, never took their vacation, and it was not paid out in the settlement. In that case, he said, all of it can be claimed.
He noted that Spanish workers are entitled to a minimum of 30 days of vacation per year. Because of that, he said, each year of unclaimed vacation can amount to close to an extra month's salary.
What happens if the case goes to court
De la Calzada also explained how these claims play out in litigation. If a worker says they only took a handful of vacation days over three or four years, perhaps five or ten days total, he said it becomes the employer's responsibility in court to prove the employee actually used the rest of their vacation time.
If the company cannot prove it, he said, it will have to pay for that vacation, and not only for the most recent year. He said claims can reach back over the last four or five years.
De la Calzada said this right to claim applies both to workers who have already been dismissed and to those still employed. For those who have left a company, he said the right translates into a payment. For those still working, he said it means they can still take the time off.
