You are entitled to one hour off work each day to look after your baby until he or she turns nine months old, and you do not have to breastfeed: the Spanish name, permiso de lactancia, is old-fashioned, but the right is about childcare. The rest is about how you use it: split it in two, swap it for half an hour less on your day, or bank it as full days off. This guide sticks to what the current text of the Workers Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores) says and points out what is left to your convenio colectivo (collective agreement).
One hour a day until nine months, whether or not you breastfeed
Article 37.4 talks about caring for the baby (“cuidado del lactante”) and applies to birth, adoption, fostering with a view to adoption and fostering. It does not require breastfeeding. It does not distinguish between mother and father either: each employee has their own right.
Two basic rules:
- One hour of absence, which you can split into two parts.
- It lasts until the baby turns nine months old. In multiple births, adoptions or fostering the leave increases proportionally.
It is an absence from work. The article provides for no pay cut during the first nine months: it only mentions a pay reduction in the extended stretch that runs up to twelve months.
Three ways to use it
The same article lets you choose, at your own discretion, between three options:
| Option | How it works | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Hour of absence | One hour a day, in one block or two parts | Daily care with a split timetable or a nursery nearby |
| Half-hour reduction | You start half an hour later or leave half an hour earlier, every day | If you prefer a fixed, shorter day |
| Banking as full days | You add the hours up into whole days off | If you want to extend your time at home after birth leave |
Choosing when you take it within your working day is up to you, under article 37.7. Collective agreements can add detail, but they cannot take that decision from you.
Banking the leave as days: the Statute gives no number
This is the most common question. The Statute says you can accumulate the leave in full working days. It does not say how many days result. That figure comes from how your collective agreement, or your arrangement with the company, counts it: hours per working day, until which date, which daily working time is used as the unit.
An example of the arithmetic, with made-up numbers for demonstration:
- Your agreement counts one hour for each working day from the end of birth leave until the baby is nine months old.
- Those working days add up to 90, so you have 90 hours to bank.
- Your working day is 8 hours.
- Result: 90 ÷ 8 = 11.25 working days, which means 11 full days and 2 hours.
If your agreement counts differently, the result changes. Do not accept a colleague’s figure from another company. Ask HR for the calculation in writing, with the method and the dates. If you disagree, the labour courts procedure in article 37.7 is there for you.
How to ask: fifteen days’ notice, in writing
Article 37.7 requires fifteen days’ notice, or whatever your collective agreement sets, stating the dates you will start and finish the leave. Force majeure is the exception.
What to put in your message:
- Date of birth, adoption or fostering.
- The option you choose (hour, half-hour reduction or banking).
- If hour or reduction: the exact time slot.
- Start and end dates.
Send it by email or through the registry, and keep a copy. If you change option later, give notice again.
If you both work for the same company
It is an individual, non-transferable right: you cannot pass your hour to your partner or the other way round. But when two people at the same company use it for the same baby, the company may limit simultaneous use if there are well-founded, objective reasons connected with how it operates, explained in writing. Even then it must offer you an alternative plan that lets both of you take the leave.
Extending it to twelve months
If both parents (or adopters or foster carers) use it for the same duration and under the same arrangement, the leave can run until the baby is twelve months old. From nine months, pay is reduced proportionally. A two-income family may prefer this route; if only one of you works or you do not share the same arrangement, you stay with nine months.
Example with numbers: salary of €1,800 a month and a half-hour reduction on an 8-hour day.
- Up to nine months: you are paid the full €1,800.
- Between nine and twelve months: half an hour is 0.5 ÷ 8 = 6.25% of your working day.
- Proportional reduction: €1,800 × 6.25% = €112.50 a month less, so you are paid €1,687.50.
Why your case may be different
- Your collective agreement improves on the law. It may set the banking method or give more flexibility. What it should not do is leave you below article 37.4.
- You are a civil servant. Public employees fall under the Basic Statute of Public Employees, with different rules. This article covers only the Workers Statute.
- You read about the 2025 reform. Royal Decree-Law 9/2025 extends birth leave but does not touch article 37.4. Its preamble recalls that banked breastfeeding leave had already been set up as an employee right by Royal Decree-Law 2/2024.
- You work shifts. Choosing the slot is your call, but put it in writing with the roster in front of you.
If the company refuses or imposes the timetable
First, reply in writing citing articles 37.4 and 37.7. If it insists, a disagreement over the timetable and the periods of leave goes to the social jurisdiction (jurisdicción social, the labour courts) under the procedure of article 139 of Law 36/2011. Breaching leave rights is a serious offence under the labour infringements law (LISOS, art. 7.5), with fines of €751 to €7,500 depending on the grade.
To fit this with everything else, see how many weeks birth leave lasts, reduced hours for childcare and how holiday days are counted. If you need to prove the hours you work, the working time record helps.
If the reason for absence is a death in the family, check bereavement leave in Spain, which has its own conditions.
This page is general information based on the consolidated text of the Workers Statute. If deadlines or money are at stake, talk to an employment lawyer (abogado laboralista) or a union before acting.