Retributed Permit Local and Regional Elections April 2019

The Retributed Permit Local and Regional Elections to Vote is included in Organic Law 5/1985, of 19 June, on the General Electoral System.

Therefore, next Sunday 26 May, the day on which Local and Regional Elections are held and depending on the role that each worker is going to play, your company has different obligations.

The experts of our Labour Consulting Department. indicate below that paid leave must be granted by the company to its workers.

Retributed Permit Local and Regional Elections.

We are talking about different cases, both for employees and those belonging to the Public Administrations.

Permit to go to vote

Workers who work next Sunday have the right as voters to have a paid Labour Permit to Vote on that day. Its duration depends on the greater or lesser coincidence of their working hours with the opening of the polling stations (which is from 9 in the morning to 8 in the afternoon). Each autonomous community decides the duration of these permits, as a guideline is usually this:

Coincidence of working hours with the polling station	Duration of the Permit
Does not coincide (or less than two hours)	No permissions
Between 2 and 4 hours	2 hours
Between 4 and 6 hours	3 hours
More than 6 hours	4 hours

The company can ask its workers to justify that they have used that time to go to vote. In order to do so, the worker must provide the corresponding document (official model signed by the president of the polling station),

Permit for having been appointed to a polling station.

Here we find different cases as well.

Permission for having been appointed president or member of a polling station.

If for the worker on Sunday, May 26 is workable, the company must grant a paid leave, with prior notice and justification. Whether or not they work on Sunday, workers who are presidents or members are entitled to a five-hour reduction on Monday, May 27.
If the worker has a night shift and works the night from Saturday to Sunday, the shift that begins on Saturday is considered an election day workday, so he or she would not work that night.
In addition, if the worker elected as a member or president works the night before Election Day and requests a change of shift, he or she must be given one. In addition, if the employee has to work the night shift immediately after Election Day, he has the right to have it reduced by five hours.

Permission for having been appointed as intervenor or proxy.

The worker who has been appointed as intervenor has the same permits as the president and the members. As for the proxy, he is only entitled to the paid leave corresponding to election day. Neither the comptroller nor the proxy has the right to receive allowances, unlike what happens with the members of the polling stations.

Permission for having been appointed as a substitute.

The designated alternate worker is obliged to report to the polling station at 8 a.m., for which his company must give him the corresponding paid leave if he works that Sunday. If an incumbent fails and must replace him, the worker will then be entitled to the corresponding permits. If, on the other hand, his presence is not necessary, he will be able to go to work normally from that moment onwards. As a guideline, it must be borne in mind that the table must be formed at 8.30 a.m., so that the worker, at that time, will already know if he must replace the absent person or if he can go to work.