Recently, the First Collegiate Circuit Court of the Auxiliary Center of the Fourth Region published a legal opinion (IV Region) 1o. J/8 (10a.), titled: “Holidays. If the employee affirms that the employer did not make the corresponding payment, without specifying that such employee worked on a respective holiday, the burden of proof is on the employer to refute such a claim.” In this decision, the Court held that when an employee argues that he/she worked on a holiday and his/her employee refused to pay required the holiday pay, two procedural burdens apply: 1) the burden of proof is on the employee to prove that he/she indeed worked on such holiday(s); and 2) the burden of proof is on the employer to prove that payment of required holiday pay was made to the employee. Nevertheless, the Court determined that it is the employer that must refute the employee’s claim that he/she was not paid for work on holidays, without such employee having to specify that he/she actually worked.
