After a lifetime spent working for a company, there are some who, when their employees retire, reward them with an extra sum of money or a gift, such as a watch or a commemorative plaque. But in this case, the reward has been quite peculiar: 10,000 liters of fuel or the equivalent, more or less, to fill the tank of a 50-liter car about 200 times.
With current average prices in Spain around 1.70 euros per liter for gasoline and 1.83 for diesel, we’re talking about a substantial amount: roughly the equivalent of about 17,000 or 18,300 euros, respectively, that this man will be able to save at the pumps gradually from now on.
And it is not an exaggeration; it is exactly what the agreement entitled a worker at a Castilla-La Mancha service station to receive after retiring after more than 43 years with the same company… although he had to win it in court.
A Collective Bargaining Agreement That Turns Retirement into Liters of Fuel
The case dates back to December 21, 2023, when the worker notified his company of his voluntary intention to retire. He had a tenure dating from May 1, 1980, and by then he had far surpassed the ten years of service required by the State Collective Agreement for Service Stations to access this early retirement premium.
The curious thing is that the agreement itself establishes the prize through a scale of liters according to age: 11,000 liters if retirement occurs at 63 years old, 10,000 at 64, 9,000 at 65 and 8,000 at 66. In this particular case, the employee retired at 64 years and 10 months, and that is where the problem began.
The company acknowledged that he was entitled to the prize, but argued that those ten months separating him from 65 should be taken into account, so it applied a proportional calculation between the 10,000 liters corresponding to 64 years and the 9,000 planned for 65, from which came 9,166.66 liters offered to him. The worker did not accept the cut and sued for the full amount.
Now, both the Social Court No. 3 of Toledo and subsequently the Social Chamber of the Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha have ruled in his favor. The TSJ’s sentence, dated July 10, 2026 and with Antonio Cervera Peláez-Campomanes as the presiding judge, states that “the agreement sets the amounts according to completed years and does not contemplate any prorating by months.” Until he reached 65, he corresponded to the bracket for 64.
That leaves a difference of 833.34 liters of fuel between what the company argued and what the Court ultimately recognized, since the tribunal considers that applying a proportional reduction would have introduced a rule not present in the collective agreement. In this case, the ten months’ difference does not change the bracket that corresponds to the worker.
The company also tried to challenge the moment the prize was requested, arguing that “the final request was made a few days after the deadline.” The TSJ does not accept this argument either. The employee had already told before retiring when he would stop working and that he wanted to take advantage of the premium, and the company itself had initially acknowledged that he had the right to it. For the Court, using that later formal defect to deny the prize does not fit with the good faith that should govern the employment relationship.
10,000 Liters Do Not Mean Filling the Tank 200 Times at Once
The ruling confirms that, from now on, the worker can periodically go to his former service station and refuel until the balance is fully consumed. To that end, during the proceedings, formulas had already been proposed, such as a card on which the liters used would be deducted.
Additionally, the agreement also allows the premium to be realized in automotive fuel, its equivalent in new energies, or certain store products, at the worker’s choice. The company must also bear the court costs, including 800 euros corresponding to the worker’s lawyer’s fees. And although this story has a happy ending, it is not definitive: the ruling can still be appealed through a cassation for the unification of doctrine within the established timeframe.
Images | Unsplash
