Public holidays that fall on a free day: is there an obligation to grant compensatory days?

The debate over what happens when a public holiday coincides with an employee's weekly day off has crystallised in recent months into a legal principle that employers can no longer ignore.

Since 2024, the Supreme Court has made it clear in writing that a public holiday cannot "disappear" simply because it coincides with a free day, and higher courts echo this opinion in recent rulings. Judgments from July 9, 2024, and April 30, 2025, and more recently from the Superior Court of Justice (TSJ) of the Canary Islands in February 2026, point in the same direction: public holidays and weekly rest days are different and independent rights, not interchangeable elements in the work calendar, and when they coincide, the company must ensure that the worker actually enjoys the public holiday.

The key point is that this criterion does not depend on the type of work schedule, the shift system, or whether the weekly rest day is fixed or rotating. It applies to everyone.

In the following paragraphs, we examine why the courts have reached this conclusion and what this approach implies for companies that are already preparing their work schedules.

The Workers' Statute (ET) clearly distinguishes between two rights: the weekly day off, intended for the recovery of workers, and paid public holidays, which are additional days that cannot be taken as compensatory holidays. The law only provides for the rescheduling of a public holiday when it falls on a Sunday, but this silence regarding other days does not mean that the public holiday can be lost.

This is precisely what the courts have emphasised: if a public holiday coincides with the weekly day off, it does not disappear, because it would cease to be a public holiday and would become a simple day off. Moreover, this would create a clear injustice towards those who rest on Sundays and see their holiday rescheduled.

The central idea underpinning this jurisprudence is simple: weekly rest days and public holidays do not serve the same purpose and cannot absorb each other. If they coincide, they compensate.

Even before the 2025 ruling, the Supreme Court had made clear the criteria of the debate. In July 2024, it had already warned that it is not valid to draw up calendars that coincide public holidays and weekly days off without compensation, because a public holiday cannot be absorbed as if it were another day off.

The April 2025 ruling went a step further. The Supreme Court highlighted something obvious but too often overlooked. If the overlap is not compensated, the worker ends the year with fewer free days than someone who has a free day on Sunday, which creates a comparative disadvantage that is difficult to justify. And, when it is not possible to grant this free day on another date, the regulatory framework itself —whether legal or contractual— provides for economic compensation with a surcharge.

This idea has been reinforced by the appellate courts. The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, in February 2026, was particularly clear: failing to compensate a holiday that coincides with a free day is illegal, and the right to a full holiday applies "regardless of the type of shift and the rest system," emphasising the idea that the holiday cannot be taken out of anyone's calendar.

The legal doctrine makes it clear that a Saturday is not a holiday as such, but simply a non-working day. Hence, if a holiday falls on a Saturday and is not rescheduled, it is lost and the worker ends up having fewer effective days off than someone who has a free day on Sunday.

The consequence, according to the Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, among others, is unequivocal: compensation must be provided in the form of an additional day off or, if this is not feasible, through the prescribed economic compensation, without altering the annual working hours.

One of the usual objections is that the Workers' Statute only provides for the automatic transfer of the holiday when it falls on Sunday, and does not say anything about Saturdays. This is true, but the jurisprudence is not creating an automatic "alternative day," but is preventing the holiday from disappearing because it coincides with the weekly day off. Therefore, if the holiday is lost, it must be compensated.

We believe that the norm is clear. It is not a new right, but a way to ensure that the public holiday —which is paid and non-recoverable— is genuinely enjoyed and not absorbed by the work schedule.

In summary, in our opinion, the legal doctrine establishes that public holidays and weekly rest days cannot coincide. If they do coincide, the public holiday must be compensated, either with an additional day off or, if this is not possible, with the prescribed economic compensation. It does not matter what shift or staffing is applied: the rule is the same.

In practice, for those who work from Monday to Friday, a public holiday that falls on Saturday cannot be considered as enjoyed. Compensating it is the only way to respect its nature as a paid and non-recoverable day and to prevent the worker from ending the year with fewer holidays than the legal minimum.

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