Thus, the holidays of November in 2026 throughout Spain are as follows: Madrid will have two consecutive long weekends.

In Madrid, the calendar of labor holidays is approved through a decree of the Government Council, within the limits set by state legislation. It does not require passing a law in the Assembly every year. To modify it, one must distinguish between the common holidays of the community and the two local holidays of each municipality.

1. The state framework: what each Administration can decide

Article 37.2 of the Statute establishes that labor holidays are paid and non-recoverable and that "they may not exceed fourteen per year, of which two will be local." This means that, as a general rule, their hours should not be recovered later.

The same provision protects four national holidays: New Year's Day, May 1, October 12, and Christmas. The autonomous community cannot freely configure the fourteen dates: it must respect the state framework and only use the substitution and transfer possibilities legally provided.

Articles 45 and 46 of Royal Decree 2001/1983, which remain in force, specify these possibilities:

• Choose between Saint Joseph and Saint James the Apostle.
• Substitute certain holidays, such as Maundy Thursday or Epiphany, with other traditional holidays of the community.
• Substitute the Monday rest corresponding to a national holiday that falls on a Sunday with traditional holidays.

Exceptionally, the Statute allows adding a recoverable traditional holiday when there are not enough national holidays coinciding with Sunday to incorporate it by substitution.

2. How it is approved in Madrid

The Madrid procedure can be seen in Decree 82/2026, which establishes the holidays for 2027. Its approval followed these steps:

• Preparation and proposal: the Minister of Presidency, Justice and Local Administration submitted the proposal.
• Consultations: parliamentary groups of the Assembly, the Catholic Church, and representative economic and social institutions were heard. Being heard does not mean approving the calendar through parliamentary voting.
• Decision: the Government Council deliberated and approved the decree, with the calendar incorporated as an annex.
• Publication and communication: it was published in the BOCM and sent to the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy. The decree takes effect from its publication, although it sets the holidays for the following year.

Article 45.4 of the state royal decree requires sending the autonomous options to the ministry before September 30, except for relations adopted on a permanent basis. Afterwards, the Directorate General of Labor publishes the joint list in the BOE: that publication gathers territorial decisions but does not replace autonomous approval.

3. How to modify an approved calendar

To change a date in the autonomous calendar approved by decree, the way is another decree of the Government Council that modifies the previous one, respects state limits, and is published in the BOCM. A press release or a company decision is not enough. The change must also be communicated to the ministry to keep state publicity updated.

It would be different to change a determination established by law: the Madrid decree itself cites Law 8/1984, which declares May 2 a holiday. An annual decree cannot modify that law; the legal declaration of the holiday must be distinguished from its labor fit through substitution and transfer rules.

4. The two municipal holidays

The City Council Plenary proposes the two local holidays and the competent labor authority determines and publishes them in the BOCM. Their modification follows that competence scope. There is a concrete example in the Resolution of December 22, 2025, which partially modified Madrid's local holidays for 2026.

The Madrid City Council has the competence to propose the two local labor holidays corresponding to the municipality. However, it does not approve the complete labor calendar by itself nor can it freely create additional holidays: the official determination of those holidays corresponds to the competent labor authority, upon municipal proposal, and must be published in the corresponding official bulletin.

Scope of municipal competence

Article 37.2 of the Workers' Statute establishes the general framework: labor holidays are paid and non-recoverable and cannot exceed fourteen per year, of which two will be local. Therefore, the two holidays of Madrid city are part of that general maximum; they are not added to fourteen days previously established by other administrations.

The City Council's intervention consists of selecting and proposing the dates that should have that condition within its municipal area. This is a participation expressly provided for in labor regulation, not a municipal power to unilaterally modify the labor obligations of companies and workers.

Who proposes and who determines the holidays

Article 46 of Royal Decree 2001/1983 specifically regulates local holidays. It provides for up to two per year, according to the tradition of each municipality, and assigns their determination to the competent labor authority, upon proposal of the City Council Plenary.

• Madrid City Council: formulates the municipal proposal on the chosen dates. The body expressly provided for in this regulation is the Plenary, so the administrative preparation of the proposal should not be confused with its adoption by the competent body.
• Community of Madrid: acts as the competent labor authority to determine local holidays and give them official publicity.
• State: establishes the general labor framework and rules on national holidays. The municipal proposal does not need to become a state law nor be individually approved by the General Courts.

Limits of the City Council's decision

The municipal capacity is subject to numerical, territorial, and material limits. Madrid cannot establish a third local labor holiday by unilateral decision, substitute national or autonomous holidays at will, nor extend its holidays to other municipalities of the autonomous community.

Additionally, the dates must respond to local tradition and fit into the applicable labor calendar. The regulation of local holidays refers to paid and non-recoverable days: the City Council cannot configure through this proposal a labor regime different from that provided by general regulation.

It is also important to distinguish a local labor holiday from a municipal celebration. Organizing events, declaring a festivity of interest for the city, or approving a cultural program does not automatically make that date a non-working day. Nor does it equate to deciding commercial opening days, non-school days, or municipal service schedules, matters subject to their own rules.

How it is specified each year

The ordinary procedure includes preparing the dates, the corresponding municipal agreement, its communication to the Community of Madrid, and the determination and official publication by the labor authority. The proposal must be coordinated with the state and autonomous calendar to correctly identify local days.

The specific deadlines for submission must be checked in the instructions established for each year: it is not advisable to assume there is a single valid municipal deadline for all years. In short, Madrid proposes its two local holidays, but their effectiveness as labor holidays requires the intervention and publication of the competent labor authority.

In the private sector in Spain, making a bridge is not an automatic right to vacation. To enjoy those days, the collective agreement, vacation planning, and agreement between the company and the worker must be respected. The main rule is in article 38 of the Workers' Statute: dates are set by mutual agreement, not by unilateral decision of either party.

1. Check the agreement and the calendar

Before requesting the bridge, the applicable agreement, contract, and company vacation calendar must be reviewed. The agreement may establish enjoyment periods, shifts, preference criteria, application deadlines, or conditions for distributing vacations. The Statute guarantees paid annual vacations of at least thirty calendar days; the agreement or contract may improve that duration.

The working day situated between a holiday and the weekly rest does not automatically become a holiday. If it is to be enjoyed as vacation, it must fit the applicable rules and be agreed upon.

2. Request the days and obtain confirmation

The request must identify the specific dates and follow the procedure established in the company, always respecting the agreement. It is advisable to submit it in writing — email or human resources application — and keep both the request and the response. This avoids discrepancies about the requested and finally authorized days.

Article 38 does not establish a general application deadline for all workers. Therefore, it cannot be stated that a bridge must always be requested fifteen days, one month, or two months in advance: applicable rules must be checked.

3. Distinguish request and prior knowledge

The Statute does require each company to have a vacation calendar and provides that the worker will know their dates at least two months before the start of enjoyment. This deadline is a guarantee of prior knowledge, not a universal deadline imposed by law for submitting requests.

Therefore, it is advisable to plan bridges during annual planning. If a later change is proposed, it must be expressly agreed upon, without assuming that merely submitting the request modifies already set vacations.

4. What the company must consider

The company is not obliged to accept any date chosen by the worker, but it cannot ignore the agreement or planning agreements. The request must fit the work organization and applicable shifts or criteria. The coincidence of several requests may require applying those rules and seeking alternative dates.

Similarly, a company closure during a bridge does not by itself allow imposing vacations. To charge those days to annual rest, there must be support in planning and applicable agreements, respecting legal guarantees.

5. Fractioning and disagreements

The Statute allows setting one or several vacation periods, but does not recognize a general right to freely distribute them in single days. Requesting one or two days for a bridge must be compatible with the agreement and enjoyment agreement. It is also not enough to have pending days to unilaterally decide when to use them.

If there is no agreement on the dates, article 38 assigns the decision to the social jurisdiction, through a summary and preferential procedure whose resolution is unappealable. The provided way to resolve the conflict is that, not to be absent on one's own initiative.