Workers in Spain will be able to take these five paid leaves of absence during 2025

Paid leave is defined in Spanish labour legislation and, more specifically, in the workers' statute. The objective? To make work compatible with personal and family life.

Five days for hospitalisation

The Families Act, which was promoted by the ministry of social rights and Agenda 2030 in the previous legislature, was left on the back burner due to the early elections. However, one of its star measures went ahead after the approval of Royal Decree-Law 5/2023: paid leave from work, which increased from three to five days, to care for a family member in the event of accident or serious illness, hospitalisation or surgery without hospitalisation requiring home rest.

The act states that in the event that the first day of leave takes place on a public holiday or non-working day, "the calculation of leave shall begin on the first working day following the day on which the event occurs". Each hospitalisation, even if it is for the same illness, is a different event.

It will also be possible when, after surgery, the patient is discharged but requires home rest. In other words, the worker may use this leave to care for the patient at home.

Moreover, it is not obligatory to take paid leave immediately if the hospitalisation lasts more than five days. In other words, the worker may choose the most critical time or period to be absent from work to take care of a family member or partner, unless the company's collective bargaining agreement dictates a specific date for doing so.

The leave in question may be requested by the spouse or civil partner (pareja de hecho), by relatives, including the civil partner's blood relative, and even by any person other than the above who lives with the worker in the same household and who requires care.

Four days per year for urgent family reasons 

Article 37.9 of the Workers' Statute states that workers have the right to be absent from work on grounds of force majeure for four days "when necessary for urgent family reasons relating to relatives or persons living with them, in the event of illness or accident making their immediate presence indispensable".

It is compatible with the previous five days' leave for hospitalisation and illness and can even be taken by the hour, depending on the scale of the emergency. Thus, a worker could take three hours of leave one day, four hours the next, and so on until the maximum of four days is reached.

One day for moving from usual place of residence

This is the leave provided for in the Workers' Statute so that an employee can move without losing money from their salary. However, the collective agreement of each company can improve this paid leave and extend it to more days.

A worker may also ask for time off in the case that they have to renew their ID card if it coincides with working hours and cannot be done at another time.

Prenatal examinations and childbirth preparation techniques

This also includes adoption or foster care, for attendance to information and preparation sessions and for the completion of the mandatory psychological and social reports prior to the declaration of suitability, provided, in all cases, that they must be carried out within the working day.