Spain: A new labour obligation: the registration of the working day

The obligation for companies to register working time came into force on the 12 May. The regulation does not establish a specific method for this obligation, it merely indicates that:

• It must be done day by day;
• It must include the time of start and end of the working day;
• It must be applied even in case of existence of flexible working hours; and
• Records must be kept for 4 years.

In order to facilitate the application of the aforementioned modification the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Social Security has recently published a Guide with some instructions.

According to this Guide the registration must apply to all employees, regardless of their category or professional group, to all sectors of activity and to all companies, whatever their size or work organisation, provided they are included in the scope of application determined in article 1 of the Worker’s Statute. Thus, companies are obliged to the daily registration of the working day, also for mobile workers, salespeople, temporary workers, telecommuting workers or any other cases in which the work is not carried out, totally or partially, in the company’s work centre.

However, there are some employees that are exempted from this obligation. It is the case of Senior management personnel established in article 2.1 a) of the Worker’s Statute “personal de alta dirección”. These employees are different from common managers or executives as they have a special legal status and their conditions are established in the Royal Decree 1382/1985 of 1 August.

In order to decide which will be the method used to register employees’ working time, article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute establishes that this must be decided through collective bargaining or company agreement or, in its absence, upon the decision of the employer after consultation with the workers’ representatives. If there is no workers’ representative, neither provisions in the collective bargaining agreement nor company agreement, the organisation of this registration will correspond to the employer.

In this sense, the Royal Decree Law gives companies freedom to decide the method that best suits their company. Thus, any system or means will be valid, whether in paper or telematic support, as long as they comply with the requirements and objectives provided in the rule, which are to provide reliable and unchangeable information that cannot later be changed.

Finally, this registration must be kept for 4 years and must remain available for employees, for their representatives and for the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate.