Spain's time-tracking law: what applies now, what's delayed

Spain’s Ministry of Labor has once again pushed back the new decree that would require digital, inspector-accessible time tracking for every company: after a critical opinion from the Council of State, the Ministries of Labor and Economy agreed in late July 2026 to delay its approval until September. It’s the second time this year the date has slipped. But here’s the detail many companies operating in Spain miss: the delay doesn’t touch the obligation that already exists. Since 2019, Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 has required every company in Spain, regardless of size or sector, to log the daily start and end time of every employee’s shift. That law is still in force, still inspected, and still fined — decree or no decree.

What happened this week with the new decree

Minister Yolanda Díaz had spent months promising a decree, ready before summer, that would ban paper timesheets and manual spreadsheets in favor of a digital, tamper-proof system with real-time access for the Spanish Labor Inspectorate (ITSS). The Council of State issued a critical opinion on the draft, forcing Labor and the Ministry of Economy to rework the text before taking it to the Council of Ministers. The result, reported this past week by Que.es and El Debate, is that approval now moves to September, most likely by decree-law, bypassing a lengthy parliamentary debate.

What’s known so far about the draft: clock-ins would have to be digital for every company, with real-time access for labor inspectors, worker representatives and each employee over their own records, and the system would need to distinguish regular hours from overtime. None of this is approved yet — it’s worth not treating dates or specific penalties from a bill still in negotiation as settled — so the sensible move is to focus on what’s already enforceable today.

What the law already requires, no new decree needed

Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 isn’t new: it’s been in force for seven years and requires, at minimum, that every company:

• Log the daily start and end time of each employee’s shift, including breaks where the collective agreement or company policy requires it.
• Keep those records for 4 years, available to employees themselves, their legal representatives and the Labor Inspectorate.
• Allow that history to be checked on request from an employee, works council or inspector, without delay.

The law doesn’t mandate a specific system: paper, a signed spreadsheet or an app all qualify as long as the record is reliable and verifiable. In practice, paper and manual spreadsheets are the easiest to tamper with or forget, and they’re exactly what generates the most findings during an inspection.

What a non-compliant company risks

Not keeping a time record, keeping an incomplete one, or failing to retain it for the required period is classified as a serious infringement under Article 7.5 of the LISOS, with fines ranging from €751 to €7,500 per workplace, depending on severity, repeat offenses and the number of employees affected. That’s a fine that applies today — not a future threat tied to the new decree.

How to get your company ready before September

1. Audit how your team currently clocks in. If it’s still paper, an uncontrolled spreadsheet, or “by memory,” that’s the first thing to fix — it wouldn’t hold up well under inspection even though a record technically exists.
2. Move to a digital system now, even before the new decree is approved. Getting ahead of it avoids a rushed migration once the rule takes effect, and it already protects you under the current penalty regime.
3. Verify your system keeps 4 years of history and that employees, their representatives and inspectors can check it without relying on someone in admin digging it up manually.
4. Document split shifts and overtime separately — it’s one of the points labor inspectors check most closely during a visit.

At Evicron we build and maintain QWorker, our own time-tracking software, precisely because we saw too many SMEs stuck between paper and an expensive tool built for large workforces. It supports clock-ins from mobile, browser or a shared NFC tablet, adds weekly digital sign-off on records, and keeps the 4 years of history the law requires, ready for an inspection. It starts at €2.50/employee/month, with no lock-in and a free trial requiring no card.

If your case doesn’t fit a standard tool

Not every company fits a generic SaaS: payroll firms managing dozens of client companies, businesses with unusual shift patterns, or teams that need time tracking integrated with an existing ERP or e-commerce platform usually need something custom-built. In our AI and software consulting we start by working out which system actually fits your operation — standard or custom — before recommending anything.

Bottom line

Spain’s new digital time-tracking decree slips to September for the second time this year, after the Council of State’s pushback. But Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 already requires you to log every employee’s shift today, keep it for 4 years, and have it ready for inspection, with fines of up to €7,500 per workplace for non-compliance. Waiting for September to digitize clock-ins only adds risk — the underlying obligation already exists.

Want to check whether your company’s time tracking would hold up under inspection today? Get in touch: the first consultation is free and we reply within 24 hours.