Many times, when we are going to carry out some type of administrative procedure, request vacations or benefits, they mention the calendar days, working days or working days. And sometimes you get confused.
What are calendar days?
Every day of the year, from Monday to Sunday, until holidays. That is, if the year has 365 days, those are natural; in the case of leap years there is one more, 366 calendar days. There is no doubt therefore regarding calendar days.
What are business and non-business days?
Business days are the days that are considered suitable for the performance of certain acts or for the computation of days of certain terms. These business days are determined by law, and in the case of Spain, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are considered business days.
Saturdays and Sundays are considered non-working days according to this previous criterion. Holidays are also considered non-working days, in the case of Spain, we must bear in mind that there are national holidays but there are also different holidays in each Autonomous Community.
The important thing about this difference is that when a term ends on a non-business day, as we have said before, on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, the term is extended until the next business day. When the last day of a term is non-working (for example, a Saturday), it will be moved to the next business day (if it is a Saturday, since Sunday is also non-working, the last day of the term will be Monday, unless it is a holiday).
The following are non-working days in the national territory or in the Autonomous Communities:
- Throughout the national territory: Saturdays, Sundays and days declared non-substitutable national holidays, or on which all the Autonomous Communities have not exercised the power of substitution.
- In the territorial scope of the Autonomous Communities: those days determined by each Autonomous Community as holidays.
- In the territorial areas of the Entities that make up the Local Administration: the days established by the respective Autonomous Communities in their corresponding calendars of non-working days.
What are workings or business days
The weekday theme is different. The working days depend in principle on the company in which we work, which may have its own calendar. But as a general rule, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and also Saturday are considered working days.
Business days or calendar days: consideration of a non-business day
In addition to calendar days and business days, you must also know how to compute non-business days. In accordance with the Common Administrative Procedure Law, these will be on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
Business days or calendar days: considered a business day
The working days are those in which the work activity is carried out; usually from Monday to Friday. However, and depending on the activity of a company, it is possible that Saturday is considered work. This does not mean that it becomes a business day, since both concepts are different. Thus, for a worker who has a working day from Monday to Saturday, the working days will be those in which he works. However, for Administration purposes, Saturday will be a non-business day and will not count for any term that has business days as a reference.
As the working days are not the same in all contracts or for all workers, to find out which days are working days, we must consult it in the annual work calendar that the company provides us. Employee vacations will also be reflected in this calendar.
What is better calendar day or weekday vacation?
The way in which the vacation days are generated through the performance of the work activity can be indistinctly 22 working days or 30 calendar days per year. Let’s see what the differences between them are and which option is better:
- Vacations on working days correspond to the total number of days that you should go to work and do not go. For example, someone who works from Monday to Friday who goes on vacation for two weeks would use a total of 10 days of work vacation. To calculate how many working days you have generated during your working time, you can calculate 1.8 days for each month worked.
- Within the vacations in calendar days, every day is counted from the last day worked and the first day when returning to work, including weekends and holidays. To choose natural vacations, you will have to calculate 2.5 days per month worked and plan well the days you are going to take. For example, to enjoy a long weekend, 3 vacation days will be used if we take off on Friday, as opposed to one if we take off on Monday.
