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CHRISTMAS

Why workers in Spain can have a legal right to a Christmas hamper

The tradition of giving workers a ‘cesta de Navidad’ to take home at Christmas is long established in Spain. In many cases, employees have a legal right to receive one.

Published: 14 December 2020 10:02 CET
Updated: 10 December 2023 00:09 CET
Why workers in Spain can have a legal right to a Christmas hamper
A typical Christmas hamper sold by El Corte Ingles in Spain. Photo: elcorteingles.es

Usually containing wine, olive oil, cured meats, luxury tinned products and sweet treats such as turrón and polvorones, the Christmas hamper is a treat that employees have come to expect.

In fact, the cesta is such an entrenched tradition in Spain that at some companies it’s written into the union contract.

In 2019, Spanish workers won a court case arguing that is not an act of generosity on the part of employers but a right that should be awarded to all employees.

Spain’s Supreme Court in papers made public in December 2019 declared Fujitsu Technology Spain had been wrong to cancel the seasonal perk – a move it made in 2013 as the country struggled in deep economic crisis.

The decision to suspend the hamper could be allowed in the context of a one-off emergency austerity measure but should not have been suspended indefinitely.

The ruling said that the Christmas hamper tradition had been so longstanding that employees had come to expect it, meaning it had become an acquired right.

The judge stated that “given the repetition over time of its delivery to the entire staff” the yuletide gift had become “a beneficial condition of the labour contract that cannot be considered merely an act of generosity on the part of the company”.

Fujitsu Spain had been delivering hampers since the unit was founded in 1973, with the exception of 1997, when vouchers were handed out instead.

Workers unions had accepted the one-off measure in 2013 but complained in subsequent years when the box of treats failed to appear.

The court ordered Fujitsu to deliver an extra compensation hamper to its 1,600 workers this year meaning employees can expect a double delivery.  

While the judges said the ruling did not automatically mean all companies must provide hampers at Christmas, it is the fifth time that the Supreme Court has ruled that the delivery is a contractual condition.

In 2022, Spain’s Supreme Court again ruled that Christmas hampers can become an “acquired right” for workers in cases when they have been handed out uninterruptedly for several years. How many years is up to the judge to decide.

So, do workers in Spain always have the legal right to a Christmas hamper? No, but if they have received one for a number of years and la cesta de Navidad is part of a collective agreement drafted by their trade union, they do have the legal right to claim it.

The value of the average order of gift baskets has hovered between €30 and €60 for the last few years. According to voices from within the Christmas hamper sector in Spain, in 2022 employers are tightening their belts due to high inflation and rising costs. 

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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Extreme’ climate blamed for world’s worst wine harvest in 62 years

World wine production dropped 10 percent last year, the biggest fall in more than six decades, because of "extreme" climate changes, the body that monitors the trade said on Thursday.

Published: 26 April 2024 08:48 CEST
'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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