Consideration of Saturdays as business days/non-business days for the purposes of the enjoyment of the permit for death, accident or serious illness of family member.

The consultation analyzes the nature of Saturdays for the purpose of enjoying the permit for death, accident or serious illness of a family member.

The consolidated text of the Law on the Basic Status of Public Employees (hereinafter TRLEBEP), approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October, provides in its article 48(a):

“a) By serious accident or illness, hospitalization or surgical intervention without hospitalization that requires home rest of the spouse, domestic partner or relatives up to the first degree for consanguinity or affinity, as well as of any other person other than the previous ones who lives with the official or official in the same home and requires the effective care of that, five working days.

In the case of serious accident or illness, hospitalization or surgical intervention without hospitalization that requires home rest, of a relative within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity, the permit will be four working days.

In the case of death of the spouse, partner or relative within the first degree of consanguinity or affinity, three working days when the event occurs in the same locality, and five working days, when it is in another locality. In the case of death of a relative within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity, the permit will be two working days when it occurs in the same locality and four working days when it is in another locality.”

In accordance with the provisions of this article, officials shall have the right to the enjoyment of the permit on the number of working days that, where appropriate, when the legal cause that motivates it occurs, and the days of enjoyment must be those immediately following the causative act, without counting, for that purpose, the unskilled and festive.

However, with regard to the consideration of Saturdays as non-working days, for the purposes of the enjoyment of the aforementioned permits, reference must be made to the provisions of the Resolution of 14 April 2026 of the Secretariat of State for the Civil Service, which provides instructions on the working hours and hours of staff in the service of the General Administration of the State and its public agencies.

Specifically, in its section 14 referring to the ‘Computation of permissions’ it is indicated:

“14.1 The operating regime of the work centres of the General Administration of the State and of its Public Agencies, linked or dependent, the organization of working time, and the hours and hours of the personnel in their service, shall be governed by their specific regulations without applying, for this purpose, the provisions on working or unworking days for the calculation of deadlines in the administrative procedures contained in Law 39/2015, of 1 October.

The consideration of a working day or a non-working day for the purposes of the fulfillment of the different days and hours in the General Administration of the State and in its Public Agencies, linked or dependent, will be determined by its own regulation, contained in this Resolution, as well as in the work schedules or other instruments that in the development and application of the same are approved.

14.2 For the computation of the permits whose duration is established in working days, the regime of time and hours that corresponds to the holder of the permit will be taken into account.

In this sense, on Saturdays, Sundays or days declared festive, they will only count when they are part of the day and time that corresponds to the holder of the permit.

14.3 For the enjoyment of permits whose duration is fixed in days, when the regulation that regulates them does not indicate that they are working days, it will be understood that they are natural days, including in their computation both the working days and the unworking days.

In permits whose duration is fixed in weeks or months, it will be understood that they are calendar days, including in their computation both the working days and the non-working days.”

In conclusion, for the computation of the permits whose duration is established in working days, the regime of time and hours that corresponds to the holder of the permit will be taken into account.

In this sense, on Saturdays, Sundays or days declared festive, they will only count when they are part of the day and time that corresponds to the holder of the permit.

All of the foregoing is without prejudice to recalling that, according to the regime of competences of this management center, the answers to queries issued by this general directorate are merely informative and, consequently, are not of a binding criterion, nor do they give rise to rights or expectations of law, nor imply any link with the type of procedures to which they refer. Furthermore, in the absence of a mandatory or binding nature, the bodies receiving such replies may, where appropriate, finally take a decision that does not correspond to the opinion contained therein.

The responses to queries contained in this bulletin address the issues raised in the light of the regulations in force at the time of their issuance, so that such responses may be affected by subsequent legislative changes or judicial decisions.