Voting Leave in Spain

24/11/2017.- Voting Leave in Spain. When and How can an employee take a leave to vote?

As you may be aware, Catalan elections will take place in less than one month time (next December 21st).

Usually elections are held on Sundays. However, in this particular case elections will be held on a working day (Thursday). Taking the above into account, employers must be aware that employees must be permitted to take necessary time off from employment to vote.

To be more precise, voting leave in Spain works the following way: employees are entitled to take up to four (4) hours without loss of pay to vote, provided polling stations on the day of election are open during employees’ working hours (polling stations are open from 9:00 to 20:00) –minimum overlap of 2 hours is required; otherwise no time off may be claimed by employees -.

Voting Leave in Spain may vary depending on employee’s working hours, as follows:

VOTERS	VOTING LEAVE
Employees with no overlap with polling stations opening hours (or less tan 2 hours overlap)	No voting leave
Overlap between 2 and 4 hours	2 hours
Overlap between 4 and 6 hours	3 hours
Overlap: +6 hours	4 hours
MEMBERS OF POLLING STATIONS, PARTY PREPRESENTATIVES AND DELEGATES	VOTING LEAVE
Members of polling stations and Party Representatives	All day long + 5 first hours of the following day
Delegates (“apoderados”)	All day long (election day)

The employer may specify the hours during which the employee may take voting leave and may require the employee to provide evidence he did vote.

That said, should you require any further information and/or have any comments about Voting Leave in Spain, do not hesitate to let us know. Our payroll specialists will be more tan glad to assist you (visit us at www.avantges.com ).