Where is it a public holiday on Monday, 9 November 2026 in Spain and when will the next bridge day be

To establish a local labor holiday, the city council must approve a proposal of dates, send it to the regional labor authority, and obtain its determination and official publication. The municipal agreement alone is not enough to create a labor holiday with general effects. The deadlines and specific documentation depend on each autonomous community.

1. Legal framework and limits

The general basis is Article 37.2 of the Workers' Statute, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015. It establishes that labor holidays are paid and non-recoverable and that they cannot exceed fourteen per year, of which two are local.

The framework is completed with Articles 45 and 46 of Royal Decree 2001/1983 and with the regional regulations on the labor calendar. Local holidays must correspond to the traditional character of the municipality. Organizing a municipal celebration does not equate to declaring it a labor holiday: that status requires following the corresponding procedure.

2. Preparing the municipal file

The city council must first consult the regional instructions for the year of application. These specify the recipient body, the deadline, the submission channel, and the required documents.

The proposal, usually promoted by the mayor's office or the competent council department, must include:

• The year to which it refers and the two chosen dates.
• The name of the festivities and their local roots.
• The verification of possible overlaps with other labor holidays.
• The municipal reports that are required.

A specific report or public consultation should not be considered mandatory without checking the applicable regulation. Additional requirements may vary territorially.

3. Approving and certifying the proposal

The ordinary channel is approval through a municipal Plenary agreement. The applicable regulations on competence and possible delegations must be respected: when a plenary agreement is expressly required, a mayoral resolution does not replace it.

Then the certification of the agreement is issued, clearly identifying the dates and the year. The city council sends it to the competent regional labor authority, along with the required documentation, usually by electronic means.

4. Regional determination and publication

The regional authority verifies that the proposal respects legal limits, comes from the competent body, and meets formal requirements. If defects are detected, it may request correction or a new proposal.

The holidays are officially determined and published through the corresponding instrument. They may appear in a specific list of local holidays or in an annex to the labor calendar. Municipal dissemination on the website or notice board does not replace the required official publication.

5. Deadlines and subsequent changes

There is no single municipal deadline for all of Spain. Proposals are usually processed during the previous year, but the regional deadline must be checked each year. Late submissions may prevent their incorporation into the ordinary calendar.

Once the calendar is published, the city council cannot unilaterally change the holiday. The change requires processing a new motivated proposal, obtaining the corresponding regional decision, and publishing the modification. Its acceptance depends on territorial rules; until formalized, the published date remains in force.

6. Practical effects

The approved dates are paid and non-recoverable labor holidays and must be reflected in the labor calendar of the affected centers. This does not necessarily mean that all activity must close: work on holidays and commercial opening have their own labor and sectoral rules.

City councils intervene in setting the labor calendar mainly through the proposal of up to two local holidays per year. They do not approve the general labor calendar on their own: the municipal Plenary proposes the dates and the competent labor authority determines them and orders their official publication. This function should be distinguished from the preparation of each company's calendar.

1. What the city council can decide

The specific rule is in Article 46 of Royal Decree 2001/1983, which contemplates "up to two days of each calendar year as local holidays traditionally belonging to each municipality".

Therefore, municipal intervention has three basic limits:

• Quantitative: the proposal may include up to two days per calendar year; it does not allow freely creating an additional number of labor holidays.
• Territorial: it refers to the local holidays of the municipality, not those of other municipalities or the entire autonomous community.
• Material: the dates must correspond to holidays belonging to the municipal tradition. The rule does not grant a general power to declare any day off.

2. Who proposes, who determines, and where it is published

The same article establishes that the holidays are determined by the competent labor authority "at the proposal of the corresponding City Council Plenary." The expressly designated municipal body is, therefore, the Plenary, not simply the mayor's office.

The basic procedure is structured as follows:

• The Plenary adopts the proposal of local holiday dates.
• The proposal is sent to the competent labor authority for determination.
• The holidays are published in the official bulletin of the autonomous community and, if applicable, in the official provincial bulletin.

The distinction is important: the municipal agreement constitutes the proposal but does not replace the determination by the labor authority nor the required publication. To know the officially established dates, one must refer to that publication.

3. What effects local holidays have

Article 46 provides that these days are non-working, paid, and non-recoverable. This means they have the status of labor holidays, remuneration is maintained, and hours should not be recovered merely because the holiday was enjoyed.

However, declaring a holiday does not imply that all activity must stop without exception. Article 47 of the same royal decree contemplates that, exceptionally and for technical or organizational reasons, the holiday may not be enjoyed. In that case, it establishes compensation: in addition to the corresponding salary, hours worked are paid with a minimum 75% increase, unless compensated with rest.

4. What does not correspond to the city council

The city council does not prepare the work calendar of the companies in the municipality. Article 34.6 of the Workers' Statute establishes that "the company shall annually prepare the labor calendar," which must be displayed in a visible place at each workplace.

Therefore, proposing local holidays does not allow the council to generally set shifts, vacations, long weekends, or the distribution of working days for companies.

This attribution should also not be confused with municipal competencies over fairs, markets, or street commerce as set out in Article 25 of the Local Regime Bases Law. These are different matters and do not equate to a general power to regulate the labor calendar. In summary: the municipality proposes its local holidays; the labor authority determines them; each company prepares its calendar.

Municipalities can propose up to two local holidays per calendar year, with paid and non-recoverable status. The important detail is that the City Council Plenary proposes the dates, but their determination corresponds to the competent labor authority.

The rule that establishes the limit

The specific rule is contained in Article 46 of Royal Decree 2001/1983, of July 28, on regulation of working hours, special shifts, and rest periods. Its text states:

"They shall also be non-working, paid, and non-recoverable, up to two days of each calendar year as local holidays traditionally belonging to each municipality."

The same provision establishes that these days are determined by the competent labor authority, at the proposal of the corresponding City Council Plenary, and must be published in the official bulletin of the autonomous community and, when appropriate, in the official provincial bulletin. You can consult the provision in the BOE text.

Therefore, the exact legal expression is up to two: that is the maximum annual number of local labor holidays provided by this regulation. It is not two days per celebration, nor two per each patron saint festival, but a limit for the entire calendar year in each municipality.

Who proposes and who determines the dates

The procedure distinguishes several actions, which should not be confused when it is said that a city council "establishes" its holidays:

• Municipal proposal: corresponds to the City Council Plenary to propose the dates of the municipality's traditional local holidays.
• Labor determination: corresponds to the competent labor authority to determine those days as local holidays.
• Official publication: the dates must be published in the autonomous community's bulletin and, if applicable, also in the provincial bulletin.

Thus, the City Council's intervention is essential because it formulates the proposal, but the rule does not configure the decision as an isolated municipal declaration from the labor procedure. To know the applicable dates in a specific municipality, the reference is its official publication, not only the announcement of a celebration.

What it means that they are paid and non-recoverable

Both characteristics appear expressly in Article 46 and define their labor nature:

• Paid: the holiday rest does not imply, by itself, ceasing to receive the corresponding remuneration.
• Non-recoverable: the rest hours of that holiday should not be recovered later merely because it was enjoyed.

This allows distinguishing a local labor holiday from other celebrations or municipal activities. That the City Council organizes events over several days does not automatically turn all of them into labor holidays. The local holiday status must comply with the limit and procedure established in the rule.

Validity and practical application

Although Royal Decree 2001/1983 was partially repealed by Royal Decree 1561/1995, the latter expressly excepted Articles 45, 46, and 47 from the repeal. Therefore, Article 46 retains the specific regulation of local holidays. This exception can be verified in Royal Decree 1561/1995.

In the business sphere, Article 34.6 of the Workers' Statute requires annually preparing the labor calendar and displaying it in a visible place at each workplace.

In short: up to two local labor holidays per year, proposed by the municipal Plenary, determined by the competent labor authority, and officially published.