From no to the reduction of working hours to a new rule on recording working hours

A few days ago, Congress voted on the Ministry of Labour's proposal to reduce working hours, and the response was rejection. Now, the same Ministry wants to establish new regulations for recording working hours. In this article, we will tell you all about the changes that the regulations will bring and what their objectives are.

According to data from the EPA (Spanish Labour Force Survey), in the second quarter of 2025, it is estimated that more than 7 million hours of overtime were worked in Spain each week, and 2.8 million of those hours were neither paid nor compensated. This means that workers are giving away nearly 40% of those hours.

The new regulation: another way to reduce working hours

Stricter regulation of working hours will, if effectively implemented, lead to a reduction in working hours, thereby achieving the same objective in a different way.

Many workers, currently estimated at around half a million, are not paid for the overtime they work. To avoid this problem, the Workers' Statute was amended in 2019 to regulate the recording of working hours. This amendment did not achieve its objective because it provided for regulatory developments that never materialised, which is what the Government now intends to do.

What will the new regulations on time recording consist of?

The new regulations aim to ensure that overtime pay becomes a reality and, in addition, they seek to establish several obligations:

• Time recording must be interoperable. This means that it must be possible to exchange and use information securely and automatically with other systems. This will strengthen enforcement of the law.
• It must also be accessible to labour inspectors at any time. This will allow inspectors to consult each employee's information when they deem it appropriate. This aspect is being criticised because it could constitute a violation of personal data protection, so ways to protect this data must be found.
• Employees themselves will record their working hours, detailing breaks and times when they are available, so that the overtime they work can be seen in concrete terms.

On the other hand, other issues are being considered, such as:

• The creation of a Ministry app that companies can use to record working hours.
• The establishment of a stricter penalty system. This measure was rejected during the vote in Congress on the reduction of working hours, but the Ministry has not given up on it and intends to amend the Law on Infractions and Penalties in the Social Order, which regulates penalties for companies that fail to comply with their obligations to record working hours, with penalties of €7,500 per company. The proposal is to increase the penalties to €10,000 per worker rather than per company. In addition to the penalty, it should be remembered that companies that fail to comply with working hours recording requirements will have to pay back wages and social security surcharges.
• The record must be electronic. To ensure authenticity, time stamps or identity verification systems may be used. However, the requirement for the record to be electronic will not apply in all cases, so some companies may continue to use manual records.

When could this regulation be approved?

It is unlikely to be approved before the end of 2025, as initiatives of this kind usually take around five months to come to fruition.

The process is currently in the public consultation phase, after which the following steps will be taken:

• Consultation with the Council of State and probably the Spanish Data Protection Agency.
• The Royal Decree will then go to the Commission of Secretaries of State and the Council of Ministers for approval.
• Finally, it will be published in the Official State Gazette and will come into force.

The regulation will include an adaptation period for companies and, probably, aid for small and medium-sized enterprises to enable them to make this adaptation.

The reality of current working hour recording: disappearing hours and manipulated records

The lack of regulatory development regarding the recording of working hours has meant that the Labour Inspectorate has found various anomalies in companies' working hour records, such as:

• Companies that do not comply with the obligation to keep records.
• Companies that have manual records that are easily manipulated.
• Systems that automatically record the working hours that the worker should theoretically have worked without taking into account any overtime they have worked.
• Records that have been manipulated in other ways with inaccurate or erroneous information in order to create the appearance of compliance with the law.

The problem of recording working hours also has cultural roots, as working longer hours is still considered in many companies as proof of commitment, seriousness and responsibility. Many workers are afraid to refuse overtime, even if they have finished their work, for fear of losing their job or other types of reprisals.

An additional problem is that labour inspections are rare, so many companies prefer to disregard the obligation to record working hours and not invest in recording systems.

If you are working overtime and not being paid for it, you should know that you can claim compensation. To do so, you will need to gather all the evidence to prove it, such as emails, WhatsApp messages, testimonies from other people, records of hours actually worked, etc. Contact us if you want to claim your rights and get paid for the overtime you have worked. Our team of lawyers specialising in labour law will analyse your case and take all the necessary steps to ensure that you are fairly paid for the work you have done.