Where is the holiday on August 15, 2026: which communities have a holiday and what happens when it falls on a Saturday

An autonomous community can replace certain national holidays with its own holidays through a basically administrative, not legislative, procedure: it sets its own calendar of labor holidays respecting the limits of the Workers' Statute and Royal Decree 2001/1983, communicates the list to the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, and this is consolidated when the Directorate General of Labor publishes the annual holiday resolution in the Official State Gazette (BOE). A specific regional law or a formal agreement in a Sectoral Conference is not required; rather, it is a matter of regulatory competencies within a closed state framework. The community can only replace the national holidays that the Royal Decree itself classifies as replaceable and must stay within the maximum allowed number of holidays. The full legal effectiveness of the substitution occurs with the dual publication: in the regional official bulletin and in the BOE.

Basic legal framework

The state resolutions that publish the list of labor holidays (for example, the list of labor holidays for 2024 and the list for 2023) explain the legal scheme:

• Royal Decree 2001/1983, of July 28: its article 45.1 enumerates the national labor holidays and distinguishes between:
  • National holidays that cannot be replaced by autonomous communities (sections a), b), and c)).
  • Holidays listed in section d), regarding which communities can choose to celebrate them or replace them with others that, by tradition, are their own.
• Article 45.3 of the same Royal Decree also allows:
  • Replacing the rest day on the Monday following national holidays that fall on a Sunday with a traditional holiday of the community.
  • Choosing between celebrating the feast of Saint Joseph or Saint James the Apostle in their territory.
• Article 45.4 requires autonomous communities to send the list of their labor holidays to the Ministry for publication in the BOE, something expressly included in the 2023 and 2024 resolutions.
• The same resolutions remind that article 37.2 of the Workers' Statute (consolidated text approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015) sets a general maximum of 14 labor holidays per year, of which up to 12 are national/regional and 2 are local, and even allows, in certain cases, adding an additional recoverable holiday.

Procedures within the autonomous community

Based on this framework, the autonomous community must generally follow these steps:

• 1. Approval of the regional calendar. The competent body of the regional government (usually the Government Council, at the proposal of the labor department or equivalent) approves each year a regulation that sets the community's labor holiday calendar for the following year. The state resolutions cite specific examples, such as Decree 156/2022 of the Canary Islands for 2023 or Decree 363/2023 of the Canary Islands for 2024, and Order EMT/81/2022 of Catalonia for 2023.
• 2. Choice of the holiday to be replaced. In that regional regulation, it is decided, among the state holidays of article 45.1.d) of Royal Decree 2001/1983, which are maintained and which are replaced by holidays “that, by tradition, are their own.” National holidays classified as non-replaceable cannot be altered.
• 3. Counting the maximum number of days. When setting the calendar, the community must respect the maximum of 14 labor holidays (including the two local ones) and, if applicable, use the possibility provided in the last paragraph of article 37.2 of the Workers' Statute, which allows adding one more recoverable holiday when it is not possible to incorporate a traditional holiday due to insufficient Sundays coinciding with national holidays. This faculty is expressly recalled in the state holiday resolutions.
• 4. Publication in the regional official gazette. The regional decree or order is published in the community's official bulletin (and, if applicable, a period is opened for municipalities to set their two local holidays, which are also published in the regional or provincial bulletin, according to article 46 of Royal Decree 2001/1983).

Relationship with the General State Administration

Once the regional calendar is adopted, the community must:

• 5. Send the list to the Ministry. According to article 45.4 of Royal Decree 2001/1983, the seventeen autonomous communities and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla send the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy the list of their labor holidays. The 2023 and 2024 resolutions begin precisely by noting this submission.
• 6. Consolidated publication in the BOE. The Directorate General of Labor, exercising the recognized competence, issues an annual resolution (such as the resolution of October 23, 2023 or the resolution of October 7, 2022) ordering the publication in the BOE of the list of national, regional, and Ceuta and Melilla labor holidays. Its annexes identify:
  • Non-replaceable national holidays.
  • National holidays for which the substitution option has not been exercised.
  • Regional holidays of the autonomous community.
  This way, it officially and coordinately reflects which national holidays have been replaced by each community.

These regulations do not mention the need for an agreement in a Sectoral Conference nor a specific bilateral commission for each substitution; coordination is articulated through the annual submission and its state publication.

Other labor regulatory references

Within the same general labor framework, although they do not specifically regulate holidays, can be mentioned, among others, Law 12/2021, Law 1/2020, Royal Decree-Law 4/2017, Royal Decree-Law 8/2017, Royal Decree-Law 28/2018, Royal Decree-Law 32/2021, as well as resolutions on calendars of non-working days in the General State Administration for 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 (for example, the resolution for 2024 or the resolution for 2025), which fit into the same logic of work time organization.

In summary, the autonomous community proposes the substitution through its own labor calendar regulation, the State only verifies compliance with general limits, and the modification becomes effective when the set of holidays is published in the BOE.

The Directorate General of Labor does not "decide" the labor calendar nor the holidays of each autonomous community, but it does have a key and formal role in the system: it is the body that, on behalf of the Ministry of Labor, orders the official publication in the BOE of the complete list of labor holidays each year and thereby makes the state, regional, and Ceuta and Melilla labor calendar public and enforceable. This function is exercised through annual resolutions such as that of 2025, which explicitly states that the Directorate General is competent for that publication. The material framework (which holidays can exist, how many, and of what type) is essentially set by the Workers' Statute and the regime of working hours and rest established by Royal Decree 2001/1983, of July 28, as amended by subsequent royal decrees.

General legal framework of the labor calendar

The core material is in article 37.2 of the consolidated text of the Workers' Statute Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015. That provision establishes that:

• Labor holidays are paid and non-recoverable.
• They cannot exceed 14 per year, of which two will be local.
• In any case, the following must be respected as national holidays: Christmas Day, New Year's Day, May 1 (Labor Day), and October 12 (National Day of Spain).
• Autonomous communities, within the annual limit of 14, can designate holidays that by tradition are their own and replace certain national holidays.

The technical detail of how the holiday system is organized and publicized is in articles 45 and 46 of Royal Decree 2001/1983, of July 28, on the regulation of working hours, special working days, and rest, which remain in force regarding holidays after its partial repeal by Royal Decree 1561/1995. Article 45 was amended, among others, by:

• Royal Decree 2403/1985, which modified article 45.1 and approved the national labor calendar for 1986.
• Royal Decree 1346/1989, which gives the current wording to article 45 and, in its number 4, organizes the annual submission by autonomous communities of their traditional holidays to the Ministry of Labor "so that said Department proceeds to publicize them through the Official State Gazette and to comply with obligations (...) with the European Communities."
• The Royal Decree 2001/1983 itself, in its article 46, which reserves up to two days each year as local holidays, to be published in the official bulletin of the autonomous community or, where appropriate, the province.

Specific competencies of the Directorate General of Labor

Within this framework, the specific competence of the Directorate General of Labor is clearly seen in the annual resolutions that publish the list of labor holidays. For example, the Resolution of October 15, 2024, which publishes the list of labor holidays for 2025, expressly indicates in its legal grounds that:

• The 17 autonomous communities and Ceuta and Melilla have sent the Ministry the list of labor holidays within their scope, in accordance with article 45.4 of Royal Decree 2001/1983.
• The Directorate General of Labor is competent to order the publication in the BOE of the communicated list of labor holidays, "with the purpose of facilitating general knowledge throughout the national territory of the set of labor holidays," citing both article 45.4 of Royal Decree 2001/1983 and the royal decree on the basic organizational structure of the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy.
• In that publication, the permanent national labor holidays established in article 45 of Royal Decree 2001/1983 are also transcribed.

The same occurs in analogous resolutions of recent years, such as those related to the holidays of 2024 (list for 2024), 2023 (list for 2023), or 2026 (list for 2026), where the Directorate General of Labor signs the resolution that consolidates and publicizes the calendar.

Scope and limits of this role

From the cited regulations and resolutions, it follows that the competencies of the Directorate General of Labor in this matter focus on:

• Receiving, within the Ministry, the lists of traditional holidays sent by the autonomous communities and by Ceuta and Melilla, under the terms of article 45.4 of Royal Decree 2001/1983.
• Integrating into a single list the national holidays (established by the Government under the Workers' Statute and Royal Decree 2001/1983), the regional holidays, and those of these two enclaves.
• Issuing each year the resolution ordering the publication in the BOE of that annual list of labor holidays, making the official reference labor calendar public throughout the State.
• Contributing, through that publication, to compliance with the information obligations to the European Union provided in Regulation 1182/1971, as recalled in the preamble of Royal Decree 1346/1989.

On the other hand, it does not result from the cited regulations that the Directorate General of Labor has its own competence to choose or replace specific holidays of the autonomous communities or municipalities; those decisions correspond, respectively, to the regional governments (within the framework of article 37.2 of the Workers' Statute and article 45 of Royal Decree 2001/1983) and to the town councils in the case of the two local holidays, which are published in the regional or provincial official gazettes according to article 46 of the same royal decree.

The issue you raise is directly related to the technical-legal regulation of labor relations (collective agreements, working hours, rest periods, and economic compensation), that is, Labor Law in the strict sense. As an assistant specialized in Spanish political and institutional current affairs (legislative, executive, and social activity), I am not designed to offer detailed labor legal advice nor to deeply interpret the Workers' Statute or specific collective agreements. However, I can guide you on the general political and regulatory framework and where these matters are regulated.

Scope in which I can assist you

My specialty is monitoring and explaining:

• Legislative and governmental activity: which regulations are being processed or have been approved (labor reforms, social laws, etc.), their political objectives, and party positions.
• Political and social current affairs: debates on minimum wage, labor reform, collective bargaining, labor or union conflicts, always from the perspective of public policy and not case-by-case advice.
• Institutional context: role of the Ministry of Labor, social dialogue, unions, and employers' associations in shaping labor regulations.

Your question requests precisely identifying the formal and material requirements a collective agreement must meet to regulate compensation for holidays worked (in money or compensatory rest), the margin it has vis-à-vis the Workers' Statute, and how those clauses are interpreted in light of social jurisprudence. That requires an answer from a labor law expert, with a fine analysis of the legal text and specific cases, which is beyond my scope.

Where this matter is politically regulated

At the level of public policy and basic regulation, the framework on working hours, rest, and work on holidays is found in the consolidated text of the Workers' Statute Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015, accessible in the Official State Gazette via this link. This text has undergone multiple partial reforms in recent years, closely linked to the political debate on labor reform, employment stability, and work time organization.

The sanctioning regime for employer breaches regarding working hours, rest, and working conditions is in the consolidated text of the Law on Infractions and Sanctions in the Social Order, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2000, which you can consult in the BOE through this link. This regulation typifies as serious infractions the violations of legal or agreed limits on working hours, rest, vacations, etc., which shows the political and social importance of respecting legal minimums.

Additionally, in the regulatory policy field, the Government has adapted over time the regulation of special working hours, rest, and work in certain sectors through regulatory norms. A classic example (now largely repealed but historically relevant) is Royal Decree 2001/1983 on working hours and rest, whose text is still partially consulted in the BOE at this link, and its political and technical evolution culminated in Royal Decree 1561/1995 on special working hours, related to this [link].

Examples of how it is politically reflected in agreements

The specific rules on holiday premiums or compensatory rest are set in each collective agreement, which is part of the collective bargaining architecture politically promoted in Spain. Many of these agreements are published in the BOE, such as the state collective agreement for collective catering (you can see one of its versions in this collective catering agreement, later updated in this link and this link), or agreements of large companies like Decathlon (for example, the VIII agreement in this link and the IX in this other [link]). These texts show how collective bargaining concretizes the legal bases, but interpreting whether a clause on holidays meets all legal requirements is a matter for legal advice.

What you can do if you seek a legal answer

If you need to know precisely what a collective agreement must say for the regulation of holidays worked to be valid (for example, whether a certain surcharge suffices or what compensatory rest corresponds), the safest is to:

• Consult directly the Workers' Statute in the BOE (consolidated text) and review the articles on working hours, rest, and labor holidays.
• Examine the applicable collective agreement in your sector or company, also available in the BOE (such as the multiple agreements registered by the Directorate General of Labor, for example this Avis agreement, this Asociación Centro Trama agreement, or this Unidad Editorial Información Económica agreement), which illustrate how these aspects are regulated in practice.
• In case of a specific doubt (for example, about your payslip or your rest periods), consult a labor advisory service (union, social graduate, labor lawyer, or public guidance service) to obtain a response tailored to your case.

I can help you, if interested, to understand which recent labor reforms have affected the role of agreements and working hours or rest, and what the political and social debate around those reforms has been.

Other examples of labor regulations and documents available in the BOE that are part of the regulatory context (although I do not analyze them in detail) are: the former Law 8/1988 on social order infractions ([link], now largely replaced by the consolidated text of 2000), the correction of errors of the sanctions consolidated text ([link]), Law 1/2020 on dismissal for absenteeism ([link]), the constitutional challenge on art. 48 ET ([link]), or the correction of errors of the Basic Statute of Public Employees ([link]) and its consolidated text ([link]). All of them show how the regulation of working time is a field of intense political and regulatory activity.