The Ministry of Labor has published this Thursday in the public hearing process its royal decree to tighten the daily recording of the working day. The text proposed by Yolanda Díaz’s department, and which must now obtain a report from various ministries and official organizations (and which will be processed urgently), raises several very relevant novelties for time control. Among them, that the Labor Inspection has remote access to the company registry, as well as that it expressly specifies the ordinary and overtime hours that are carried out, as well as whether the latter are paid or compensated for rest.
The draft royal decree published will be submitted to public hearing and information between October 10 and 20, 2025. In addition, a report has been requested from the most representative business and union organizations and the labor authorities of the autonomous communities.
Below are some of the most notable elements of this regulation, which can be carried out by the Government alone, without going through Parliament. In principle, the processing is expected to take a few months, due to the reports required from entities such as the Council of State and the Spanish Data Protection Agency, although Labor has not specified the estimated period for the reform to be effective. The text provides for its entry into force “twenty days after its publication in the Official State Gazette.”
Digital record and changes to leave a trace
As Yolanda Díaz had already announced, the royal decree requires that the registration of the day be carried out by digital means, banishing the current option of paper signing.
It is required to be “objective, reliable and accessible”, terms that are defined with measures such as that the hours recorded cannot be modified subsequently without the authorization of the company and the worker. Furthermore, in the case of modifications, they must leave a trace, which “reflects a clear and indelible imprint of the changes made and their authorship.”
The worker must be the one who fills out the time control and must identify himself to do so, “with the personal data essential for the purpose of the registration.”
More details: if there are overtime hours and how they are compensated
Work proposes a record with more details about the course of the day compared to the current one, which requires at least identifying the beginning and end of the day. The Ministry proposes that the record include the specific start and end time of each work day, as well as each break “that is not considered effective work time” (going to the bathroom would be excluded, for example), and it must be specified whether the day is in person or remotely.
The record must also identify, within each day, whether the hours worked are of an “ordinary, extraordinary or complementary nature.” In the case of overtime, “it must be specified whether they will be compensated for rest or whether they will be paid, as well as whether they result in hours worked to prevent or repair accidents and other extraordinary and urgent damages,” states the draft royal decree.
Labor also wants to demand that there be a record of “the waiting times and the times at the disposal of the company, when they are not considered effective working time”, as well as “the interruptions in the enjoyment of the right to disconnection” and the hours worked as a result of “conciliation formulas, flexibility or irregular distribution of the working day.”
More control: from the Inspection and copy to the workers
The time record “must allow access by the Labor and Social Security Inspection at any time and immediately, remotely and in person at the work centers,” states the text, one of the most highlighted measures by the Ministry of Díaz and the unions as a deterrent to time abuses.
The project also contemplates that workers can consult and obtain a copy of their record “at any time and immediately, at least in their workplace.” In addition, the company should deliver, along with the salary receipt, “a copy of the summary corresponding to the period set for the payment of remuneration.”
It is also foreseen that the legal representation of workers can consult and obtain a copy of all records “at any time and immediately, in the workplace”, taking “into account in matters of personal data, the principle of minimization and proportionality.”
A registry with fewer requirements for household employment
All this fine print of the working hours record is reduced for household employment, for which it is stated that time control may be carried out “by any means that is proportionate to the capabilities and resources of the employer and the worker and that guarantees compliance with said obligation effectively.”
In the case of subcontracting, when workers perform the work in the main company’s work center, it is contemplated that “the subcontracting company must guarantee that said people can record their work day at their workplace.”
In the case of ETTs, “compliance with the day registration obligations established in this royal decree will correspond to the user company,” the decree contemplates.
Source: www.eldiario.es
