The Supreme Court has established that public officials and employees who have a recognized bonus for shift work, night work and holidays or on-call service, also have the right to collect it when they are on vacation, on leave or enjoying birth and child care leave (what is known as maternity or paternity leave).
Likewise, this doctrine could also be extended to extraordinary payments, since these must include all fixed and periodic salary concepts. In its ruling, the High Court also clarifies the limitation period, establishing the possibility of claiming bonuses that were not paid in the previous four years.
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Jeanne (63 years old), retired as a nurse, tells how much she receives as a pension: “my pension is 2,000 euros; it was a real shock to see how much I lost, since I earned 3,380 euros.”
Patricia, a Spaniard in Switzerland, is not shy when talking about what a bricklayer earns there: “2,501.70 euros for 9 days of work”
It all started with the request of a Local Police Officer, in 2020, in which he demanded to receive holiday and night supplements during vacation periods, temporary disability (leaves), permits for personal matters and other paid permits, in addition to payment of the corresponding arrears.
The Local Government Board of the Vigo Council denied such a request, which is why the police officer decided to file a claim through the courts. After going through the Contentious-Administrative Court no. (gratuities for extraordinary services) conditional on the effective provision of services (excess work).
When are bonuses collected while on sick leave, vacation or leave?
The Supreme Court, in its ruling 2966/2025, clarifies that “when the official provides services on a shift basis that includes night shifts and holidays, if these services are provided within the hours of the ordinary working day, they have the right to their remuneration in periods of annual leave, temporary disability, leave for personal reasons and other paid leave.”
That is, when these bonuses are paid on a regular and ordinary basis, because they are part of the usual work day (for example, if you usually work at night or on holidays), they acquire the character of ordinary remuneration, so they must also be received when you are on vacation, on sick leave or enjoying other paid leave.
On the contrary, if these special shifts, for which the bonuses are received, are carried out outside of ordinary hours, they would be considered variable or extraordinary remuneration that is only generated (and, therefore, can be collected) when these extraordinary services are provided. Thus, in the latter case, they would not be received while on sick leave or on vacation.
You can claim the previous 4 years
This ruling not only redefines payrolls and the calculation of extraordinary payments, but also allows thousands of public officials and employees to claim the amounts they did not receive during the last 4 years, as long as they had the right to receive them during the time they were on sick leave, on vacation or on paid leave.
This is, as we have seen, when these bonuses were paid on a regular and ordinary basis because they were part of the usual work day. Taking into account the deadline, in order to claim, for example, the extra Christmas pay of 2021, claims would have to be submitted before November 30, 2025.