Court orders builder to pay Granada bricklayer four years of holiday pay

A bricklayer from Granada is paid four years of holiday his employer denied him

Four years without a single day off. The company's pitch was the usual one: "we're a family", "everyone needs to pull together". When the construction firm shut down overnight, the worker found himself out on the street with no severance and no holidays. Now, a court ruling has sided with him and ordered the company to pay for that untaken period.

The case is a perfect example of what goes on in the sector: loyalty rhetoric as a cover for exploitation. It is not an isolated case. Ten-hour-plus shifts without social security contributions, contracts signed at understated wages and inspections that look the other way are part of the routine on many building sites.

The inspection that never reaches the building site

While in the bars of a village during its patron saint festivities the Labour Inspectorate showed up with the Civil Guard and searched every last corner, on building sites it's a different story. The contrast is nothing new: inspection pressure concentrates on visible sectors with regular schedules, while construction, with its cascading subcontracting and mobility, is left in limbo.

FOGASA and the end of the road

When the company goes bust and there is no fund to answer for it, the worker ends up on the lists of the FOGASA (Spain's Wage Guarantee Fund), with its limits and its delays. Compensation for untaken holidays ends up being small consolation for years of forced sacrifices.

The unsettling fact: four years of denied holidays fit into a court ruling, but the culture that made them possible remains intact. Until there are serious inspections in the building trade, the next victim is already on some construction firm's payroll.