<\/p>\n
In a ruling dated 28 May 2026, Spain’s Supreme Court (Social Chamber) has set a clear, distinct standard for how attendance bonuses apply during sick leave<\/strong> versus paid leave \u2014 settling a question that has long caused confusion in payroll administration and collective bargaining agreements.<\/p>\n Does an attendance bonus have to be paid when an employee is on sick leave or taking paid leave?<\/strong><\/p>\n This question comes up repeatedly in collective agreement management, and the Supreme Court has now provided a definitive answer.<\/p>\n The case arose from a company’s collective agreement that denied the attendance bonus for any absence from work – including absences that were legally justified. The Supreme Court reviewed that provision and drew a key distinction between two situations<\/strong> that are often treated the same, even though they aren’t: temporary sick leave and paid leave.<\/p>\n What the ruling establishes<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Sick leave does not entitle employees to the bonus<\/strong><\/p>\n While an employee is on medical leave, their employment contract is suspended: the obligation to work stops, and so does the obligation to pay wages \u2014 which are instead replaced by Social Security benefits. Since no wages accrue, the attendance bonus doesn’t accrue either.<\/p>\n 2. Paid leave does preserve the bonus<\/strong><\/p>\n The situation is different for leave covered under Article 37 of the Workers’ Statute. Because the law itself classifies these absences as paid, employees retain the right to their regular pay \u2014 and the attendance bonus cannot be stripped out simply because they’re on leave. In this case, then, the bonus still applies.<\/p>\n 3. All legally recognized leaves are protected<\/strong><\/p>\n The Supreme Court overturned the National Court’s earlier approach and extended this protection to every type of paid leave provided for by law \u2014 including leave for marriage, bereavement, and relocation, among others.<\/p>\n 4. Collective agreements cannot undercut the legal minimum<\/strong><\/p>\n Paid leave is a legally guaranteed right. No collective agreement can hollow out that right by stripping away salary components \u2014 like this bonus \u2014 that form part of an employee’s regular pay.<\/p>\n The key lies in the legal nature of each situation<\/strong>: sick leave suspends the employment contract, while paid leave keeps the employment relationship \u2014 and the right to be paid – fully in effect.<\/p>\n Practical implications for companies and HR teams<\/strong><\/p>\n This ruling means many collective agreements will need to be reviewed when it comes to attendance, punctuality, or presence bonuses. Going forward, companies should keep in mind:<\/p>\n In short, the Supreme Court has established a standard that brings much-needed legal certainty<\/strong>, clearly defining when these salary supplements can be withheld \u2014 and when they must continue despite an employee’s absence. This is a particularly important rule for companies and HR departments, especially in sectors where collective agreements include attendance, punctuality, or presence bonuses.<\/p>\n Need to review your collective agreement or compensation policy?<\/p>\n At addwill<\/strong>, our Labor and Employment Litigation Department can assess how this ruling affects your company and helps you bring your bonus policies in line with the new standard.<\/p>\n Get in touch with us \u2014 email us at [email] or call us at [phone number].<\/p>\n Author:<\/p>\n Tania Marchante<\/strong><\/p>\n Associate<\/p>\n Addwill Employment Litigation Department<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In a ruling dated 28 May 2026, Spain’s Supreme Court (Social Chamber) has set a clear, distinct standard for how attendance bonuses apply […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":35185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1034,887],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-laboral-en","category-legal-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35178"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35191,"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35178\/revisions\/35191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/addwill.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n