Since May 12, 2019, every company with employees in Spain is legally required to register daily working hours. This obligation comes from Real Decreto-ley 8/2019, commonly referred to as the registro de jornada laboral. Despite being in effect for over seven years, many companies — especially international firms with Spanish subsidiaries or remote workers based in Spain — still struggle with full compliance. This guide breaks down exactly what the law requires and how to implement it without disrupting your team’s workflow.
What the Law Requires
Article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores), as amended by RD 8/2019, establishes three core obligations:
- Daily registration of working hours— Every employee must record the specific start and end time of their working day. A simple “8 hours worked” entry is not sufficient; the actual clock-in and clock-out times must be captured.
- 4-year retention— Time records must be preserved for a minimum of four years and be available for inspection by the labour authority (Inspección de Trabajo), works councils (comité de empresa), and the workers themselves.
- Accessibility— Records must be readily available to employees, their legal representatives, and labour inspectors upon request. This means you cannot store them in a locked filing cabinet that only HR can access.
The law deliberately does not prescribe a specific format or tool. Companies are free to use paper sign-in sheets, Excel spreadsheets, badge readers, or digital time tracking software. However, the chosen method must guarantee the reliability and immutabilityof the records — which effectively rules out manually editable spreadsheets for any serious implementation.
Who Must Comply
The scope is universal: all companies with employees under a Spanish employment contract must comply, regardless of size, industry, or whether the company is Spanish or foreign-owned. This includes:
- Full-time and part-time employees
- Fixed-term and indefinite contracts
- Remote workers and telecommuters
- Employees of foreign companies working in Spain under a Spanish contract
- Temporary agency workers (the user company is responsible)
The only groups generally excluded are senior executives (alta dirección) and genuinely self-employed freelancers (autónomos) — though the latter must still track their own hours if they have employees.
Penalties for Non-Compliance
The Inspección de Trabajo classifies the absence of time records as a serious infraction (infracción grave) under Article 7.5 of the LISOS (Ley sobre Infracciones y Sanciones en el Orden Social). The fines are structured in three tiers:
- Minimum (grado mínimo):€626 – €1,250
- Medium (grado medio):€1,251 – €3,125
- Maximum (grado máximo):€3,126 – €6,250
These penalties apply per infraction, and inspectors have discretion in determining what constitutes a single infraction. In practice, a company with 20 employees and no time tracking system could face a single fine or multiple fines depending on how the inspector frames the violation. Companies with a history of prior infractions or those that refuse to cooperate during inspection face penalties at the upper end of the scale.
Beyond the direct fines, inadequate time records weaken a company’s position in overtime disputes. If an employee claims unpaid overtime and the company has no records to prove otherwise, Spanish courts consistently rule in favour of the employee.
What Good Compliance Looks Like
Based on the guidance from the Inspección de Trabajo and case law from Spanish courts, a compliant time tracking system should have these characteristics:
- Individual records per employee per day— Each entry must show the employee’s identity, the date, and the start and end times.
- Tamper resistance— The system should prevent retroactive modifications or, at minimum, log any changes with a timestamp and the identity of who made them.
- Easy export— Inspectors may request records in a readable format (PDF, CSV, or printed) during an on-site visit. Your system must be able to generate these reports on demand.
- Employee access— Workers must be able to view their own records. A system that only allows management access does not meet the legal standard.
How vlastERP’s Clocker Module Meets Every Requirement
vlastERP includes a dedicated time tracking module called Clocker that was designed with European labour law compliance as a first-class concern. Here is how it maps to each requirement of RD 8/2019:
- Immutable timestamps— Once an employee clocks in or out, the timestamp is recorded in an append-only log. Modifications by managers are permitted but fully audited: the original value, the new value, who changed it, and when are all preserved.
- Complete audit trail— Every action in the system is logged, creating the documentary evidence that inspectors look for.
- One-click export— Generate PDF or CSV reports filtered by employee, date range, or department. During an inspection, you can produce the required documentation in under a minute.
- Employee self-service— Each team member has access to their own time records through their personal dashboard, meeting the accessibility requirement.
- Per-country holiday calendars— Clocker includes built-in holiday calendars for Spain (including regional holidays by comunidad autónoma), Germany, France, and other EU countries. This ensures accurate working-day calculations.
- 4-year+ retention— Data is stored in EU-hosted infrastructure with retention policies that exceed the legal minimum.
If you’re currently using a standalone time tracker that wasn’t designed for European compliance, you may want to see how it compares. Check out our detailed vlastERP vs Clockify comparison.