Recording working hours is compulsory, and the Inspección checks it: how to do it without a fight

Real Decreto-ley 8/2019 made the daily record of working hours (registro de jornada) compulsory for every employer in Spain, regardless of size, from 12 May 2019. The rule is simple to state: for each worker, each day, you must record the actual start time and end time, keep the records for four years, and make them available to the worker, their representatives and the Labour Inspectorate on request.

What the law does not say is how. A paper sheet signed daily, a spreadsheet, a clocking app on a phone or tablet, or a fingerprint reader are all acceptable, provided the record is reliable, cannot be altered after the fact without trace, and reflects real times rather than the contract schedule copied every day. That last point is where most fines come from: an inspector who finds every day recorded as exactly 09:00 to 17:00 in a bar that opens until midnight does not need to look further.

Breaks need care. Time for lunch or a mid-shift rest is not working time if the worker is genuinely free; the record should show it, or the system should deduct it consistently, and the approach should be the same for everyone.

Overtime becomes visible, which is the point of the law. Hours above the contract must be paid or compensated with time off according to the hostelería or comercio collective agreement for Málaga province, and there is an annual legal cap. A business that records honestly and pays what the record shows has little to fear; one that records honestly and does not pay has created its own evidence.

The fines for not keeping the record, or keeping a false one, are classed as serious (grave) under the labour infractions law and run from several hundred to several thousand euros per infraction, plus whatever unpaid hours and contributions the inspector reconstructs.

For a small business the practical answer is a free or low-cost clocking app on a tablet by the back door, with each worker tapping in and out, a monthly printout signed by the worker, and the files kept with the payroll. Twenty minutes to set up, no arguments later.