Possibility of carrying out regular working hours during holidays or holidays by officials who habitually carry out reduced working hours for particular interest

The question raised concerns the possibility that officials benefiting from a reduction in the regular working day for reasons of particular interest may apply for a change to the regular working day in the periods of holidays, public holidays or in those periods in which there is a special day.

In the first place, the legal framework for implementation must be analysed. The Public Administrations are competent to establish the organization of the working time of the staff in their service, in accordance with the provisions of articles 47 and 51 of the consolidated text of the Law of the Basic Statute of the Public Employee, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 5/2015, of 30 October (TREBEP).

In the field of the General State Administration, the Resolution of April 14, 2026, of the Secretary of State for the Civil Service, which provides instructions on the working hours and hours of staff in the service of the General State Administration and its public agencies, is applicable.

The fifth paragraph of that resolution provides for the possibility, in cases where it is compatible with the nature of the job performed and with the functions of the work centre, of staff occupying jobs whose level of employment supplement is equal to or lower than 28, to request the competent body to recognise a reduced, uninterrupted working day from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., from Monday to Friday, receiving 75% of their remuneration.

In any case, the corresponding Unit may deny the reduced working day in the case that is not compatible with the nature of the position and with the functions of the work center, or in the case that the requirements established in said precept are not met, said denial, in accordance with article 35 of Law 39/2015, of 1 October, of the Common Administrative Procedure of the Public Administrations, must be motivated.

In view of the above, the issue raised focuses on the possibility of denying the entry to the regular working day to the staff who have been authorized to reduce the working day due to particular interest in the case that, repeatedly, they request this entry exclusively in the periods of holidays or holidays and in those periods of time in which the day of the center is reduced, in order to receive during those periods the totality of their remuneration, it is reported that, the criterion followed by this Center may be applied, by analogy, in relation to the reduction of the working day by legal guardianship.

In this sense, in general, and by analogy, nothing is opposed to the interested parties being able to apply for the full day pass before the enjoyment of holidays, holidays or special day periods, however, once it ends if it again requests the reduction of the day, it could lead to a fraud of law.

This is confirmed by the Judgment of May 14, 1998, of the First Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Galicia, in a case in which a civil servant wanted to establish specific periods for the enjoyment of the permit for reduction of legal custody according to her interests, establishes in its Second and Third Legal Bases the following:

“ (…) It is obvious that the recurrent does not intend to make use of the reduction of the working day in the periods of continuous school day or school holidays, and on the other hand in the remaining periods, thus temporalizing, at her unilateral choice, the enjoyment of the reduced day. However, it is also obvious that the purpose of the rule in which the appellant tries to find support for her claim, which is to make the work compatible with the care and attention of the child, is not exactly the same as that pursued by the complainant who, it seems, It only seeks the complete perception of their remuneration outside those non-teaching or continuous work periods. (…)

The reason for the reduction in working hours is that it responds to the specific need to ensure, without detriment to paid work, the care and care of the child or child; That is why such a reason exists or does not exist, what does not seem logical is that it appears and disappears according to the interests of the plaintiff, temporalizing her petition in the way that suits her”.

Therefore, in the event that these requests are repeated and relate exclusively to holidays, holidays or special days, they may be denied on a reasoned basis if, according to the concurrent circumstances, the Personnel Unit considers that they may constitute a fraud of law.

In conclusion, there is nothing to prevent a request for change on an ordinary day, without prejudice to the Personnel Unit assessing whether there is fraud in the conduct of the public employee.

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.