New obligation to record working hours in Spain

After several years of legal disputes and contradictory judicial decisions concerning this matter, the Spanish Government has addressed it in the Royal Decree-Law 8/2019, of 8 March (Real Decreto-ley 8/2019, de 8 de marzo, de medidas urgentes de protección social y de lucha contra la precariedad laboral en la jornada de trabajo– (the “RD-L 8/2019”). Employers, regardless of size and sector, must now:

• record the daily working time of all employees, including tele-workers, sales personnel and on-call employees;
• keep this information for a period of four years; and
• make it available to employees, employee representatives and the Work Inspectorate.

The RD-L 8/2019 does not require employers to use a particular type of time recording system. However, the system that an employer uses will have to provide information about the employee’s daily start and finish times and breaks. For those companies with employee representatives, the choice and the implementation of the time recording system requires prior consultation with the representatives.

Failure to implement a recording system could result in a fine ranging between € 626 and € 6,250.

The RD-L 8/2019 has been announced as a measure to control overtime, which is limited to 80 hours per year for full time employees, and it could therefore give rise to an increase in claims and sanctions concerning the payment of overtime and its annual limit.