New regulations on recording the working time in Spain
The current government decided on 8 March 2019, in the Royal Decree (Real Decreto-ley 8/2019) on urgent social protection measures to combat precarious working conditions, to oblige companies to carry out checks and record hours for employees. The aim is to combat unpaid or fraudulent overtime, which can sometimes even be full days, but also to control absenteeism by requiring companies to register the start and end of employees’ working hours in order to avoid situations of abuse. The law will enter into force on 13 May 2019.
The reform aims to ensure that working hours are respected, to allow control by labour and social security inspectorates and to create a legal framework for workers and enterprises to eliminate discrepancies between actual hours worked and wages paid. Currently, about half of the overtime worked by companies in Spain is not paid.
The law does not specify how the recording of daily working hours is to be implemented in practice. The labour inspectorates themselves rely on a “mechanised registration system”.
Companies can choose a medium in which the time recording system must reliably show the daily start and end times. This record must also include the hours that have been provided outside the workplace on demand. And if these hours exceed the normal working day, they are recorded as overtime.
Analogue systems such as time switches can also be used. However, digital systems in the form of apps installed on the employee’s or company’s personal devices will probably prevail. This also allows work to be recorded in the “home office”. The records must also include the hours worked on demand outside the workplace.
Companies should involve employee representatives before the introduction of the time recording system in order to avoid violations of the privacy of these employees. To this end, it is necessary to take into account the proportionality of the system put in place, as it may conflict in particular with data protection rules.
