Global Compliance – Spain
Spain: Proposed Royal Decree on Digital Working Hours Registration
Spain has proposed a significant reform to its working-time recording rules. The forthcoming Royal Decree on the Recording of Working Hours aims to modernise the system of recording working time by introducing a mandatory digital recording framework to ensure consistency, transparency, and stronger compliance with labour law.
The Royal Decree is expected to be issued in late 2025 or early 2026 and will take effect 20 days after its publication in the Boletín Oficial del Estado.
Currently, employers must ensure a daily record of each employee’s working hours, showing the exact start and end times of the workday. The recording method may be agreed through a collective bargaining agreement, a company policy, or decided by the employer after consulting employee representatives. These records must be kept for 4 years and be accessible to employees, their representatives, and the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate upon request.
The proposed regulation will bring several important changes for employers in Spain:
Digital obligation: All companies shall use a digital time-tracking system. The system must be objective, reliable, and tamper-proof, ensuring no data can be changed without proper authorisation.
Scope of application: The obligation applies to all employees, including senior executives, part-time, temporary, remote, and hybrid workers.
Recording information in digital records:
- employee identification
- work schedule (full-time or part-time, and applicable percentage)
- exact start and end times and breaks
- work location (on-site or remote)
- type of hours (ordinary, overtime, supplementary), with details of compensation (paid or time off)
- start and end times of waiting or on-call periods not counted as active work
- hours worked under flexible or irregular schedules
- daily and monthly summaries of total hours worked
- identification and authorisation for any modifications
- recorded interruptions or disconnection periods in line with legal or contractual rights
Protocol and training: Employers must prepare a written protocol on how the system will operate, after consultation with employee representatives.
Employees must be trained in how to use the system. Training time counts as working time and cannot be at the employee’s expense.
System compliance: Employers are required to use a certified or compliant digital time tracking system that meets the legal standards of objectivity, reliability, and accessibility. If an alternative tool is used that is not officially certified, employers must prepare a technical report from a qualified expert to justify its suitability.
Access rights: Employees must be able to view and obtain copies of their working time records at any time. A summary of hours worked must accompany each payslip. Employee representatives may access the records, but data must be anonymised for privacy protection.
Labour authority access: The Labour and Social Security Inspectorate must have immediate on-site and remote access to all digital records.
Record retention: All records must be securely stored for 4 years, in line with Spanish and EU data protection laws.
Take Away- Employers should begin preparing now by reviewing and updating internal policies, evaluating digital time-tracking solutions, to ensure that systems align with the upcoming recording requirements.
