Important victory for permanent workers in the Balearic Islands against the hospitality sector, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs. The Supreme Court has issued a final ruling that prevents companies from unilaterally imposing vacation dates and compensation for working on public holidays to employees with discontinuous permanent contracts, practices that the High Court considers discriminatory against permanent employees.
The ruling, which affects more than 100,000 employees in the archipelago, represents a structural change in the collective bargaining of hotels, bars, restaurants and nightclubs. The court decision comes after an appeal
Obligation to agree on vacations and holidays
According to the ruling, companies will not be able to decide when permanent employees take their vacations or how they are compensated for working on public holidays. From now on, these aspects must be negotiated between the company and the employee, on an equal footing with the rest of the workforce.
“There is no objective justification for the employer to unilaterally impose compensation for public holidays on permanent employees,” states the Supreme Court ruling reported by the Mallorcan newspaper, citing Article 18 of the collective bargaining agreement and Article 16.6 of the Workers’ Statute.
This means that all companies covered by the Balearic hotel and catering agreement must communicate at least two months in advance the holiday periods of permanent employees and agree with them the compensation formula for working on public holidays.
Employers’ rejection and strategic error
The Hotel Federation of Mallorca and the rest of the employers’ associations of the sector refused to open a negotiation, forcing the judicial conflict. UGT proposed dialogue from the beginning, but after the company’s refusal, it took the case to the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJB), which in 2023 ruled in their favor.
Despite this first judicial defeat, the employers decided to appeal to the Supreme Court, in the hope of at least maintaining control over public holiday compensation, writing off the fight for vacations.
Even the Public Prosecutor’s Office supported this business claim, but the Supreme Court has been clear: there is no room for discrimination based on the type of contract.
According to industry sources quoted by Diario de Mallorca, some businessmen now recognize that refusing to negotiate was a “big mistake”.
The new agreement is already updated
Although the 2024 collective bargaining agreement left the challenged articles in abeyance and, therefore, they were no longer applicable, the employers left the door open to reactivate them in the event that the Supreme Court ruled in their favor. After this final ruling, this possibility no longer exists.
Conditions must be equal to those of ordinary permanent workers. This will have a direct impact on the recruitment and management of personnel during the high season, as each rest and compensation period will have to be discussed, without impositions.
Beyond the hospitality industry: possible changes in other sectors
José García Relucio stressed that this historic union victory opens the door to review all collective bargaining agreements in the islands, not only the hotel and catering sector. As he has indicated, UGT-Servicios is already reviewing the content of other labor agreements in search of discriminatory clauses according to the type of contract.
