Enjoy several licenses for your own affairs.

The consultation is about the possibility of enjoying several licenses for their own affairs in specific periods of time, excluding non-working days.

The license for own affairs is regulated in article 73 of the Articulated Text of the Law of Civil Servants of the State, approved by Decree 315/1964, of February 7, in the following terms:

“Licenses may be granted on their own behalf. Such licences shall be granted without payment, and their cumulative duration may not exceed three months in two years.”

This provision is understood to continue in force in accordance with the provisions of the Derogatory Provision and the fourth final Provision of 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.

Pursuant to various judicial pronouncements, including the judgments of 27 September 2001 and 4 October 2002 of the Administrative Litigation Division of the High Court of Justice of Madrid, this Subdirectorate has been understanding that the effects of the licence must not be extended beyond the strictly requested days.

However, the request that is made cannot be made in such a way that only working days are requested within a certain period and intermediate non-working days are excluded, since, in this case, according to the aforementioned judicial pronouncements, there would be an abuse of law.

Furthermore, in accordance with the Judgment of 4 October 2002 of the Administrative Litigation Division of the High Court of Justice of Madrid, cited above, “Failure to compute on Saturdays and Sundays would disproportionately increase the maximum permit duration of two months every three years established by Article 73.”

Thus, the key element in determining the appropriateness of extending the effects of the license for its own affairs to non-working days is the possible abuse that occurs in the use of this license.

Such abuse would occur, as noted, when the application includes a day of working periods and excludes non-working days within that period.

This confirms the possibility of enjoying this license on specific or independent days as long as, as indicated, there is no abuse of rights or fraud of law in the terms set forth.

Therefore, the leave for own affairs may include periods of less than seven days provided that the personnel unit concerned deems it appropriate in the light of the other concurrent circumstances, the needs of the service are duly guaranteed, and there is no abuse of rights, as stated above.

On the other hand, the application for leave on its own for periods of less than seven days repeatedly in short periods of time may be an indication of an alleged abuse of rights, although the concurrent circumstances must be assessed in each specific case.

As for the possibility of the union or accumulation of days of leave for own affairs and days of permission for particular interest interspersed on Saturdays and Sundays, or its accumulation with days of holidays, in the absence of an express regulation in this regard, it is not possible to establish a taxative rule, since the use of a license of this type linked to days for private affairs or days of holidays is not prohibited by law, although, in the light of the aforementioned jurisprudence, it is clear that it will have to be assessed if in the period requested the use of this permit gives rise to an assumption of fraud of law, which necessarily requires the examination of the concurrent circumstances: number of days requested, number of days within the greater or revés.

In any case, the days of leave for private reasons or holidays included in the application and the effects they themselves project in that temporary period may not be affected, so that the rights inherent in the days of leave for private reasons or holidays or the effects they produce in the rest of the period considered must be preserved.

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.