Parliamentary failure in the Voting of the reduction of the day at 37.5 hours a week was an important setback for a measure that appeared as one of the Flags of the Legislature Agreement.
However, in that parliamentary session the reduction of day was lying. Indirectly, the Hours registration system reform that accompanied to that measure and the regulatory changes that allowed the sanctions to harde and fight against labor exploitation.
Without parliamentary force. The initial design contemplated two key pieces: 37.5 hours workday and a mandatory digital hourly registration, immediately accessible for the Labor Inspection and the unions. If approved, both measures would have been reinforced in the eradication of the extra hours not paid.
Without the legislative instruments that allowed its approval in Congress when modifying the Baremo de Sanctions, the Ministry of Labor has been forced to reorient your strategynow putting the focus on the reform of the time registration by decree law. That forces the measure with a proposal that applies minor changes to The current regulations.
A reform reduced. The difference between what was raised in Congress and what now is submitted to public consultation It is evident. Such and As I pointed out The economistwith the parliamentary proposal it included a mandatory and integrated digital system, while the decree maintains flexible options and leaves out a reinforced sanctioning regime.
Yolanda Díaz, second vice president and head of the Ministry of Labor, He has defended than the current day record It is “absolutely violative of community regulations and the Court of Justice of the European Union has condemned Spain for not meeting the demands. “
Despite this forcefulness by the government, even its union allies admit that the proposal for the reform of the time registration has been diluted with the change of road for approval. “From CCOO we will demand the literalness of the text agreed in social dialogue,” demanded Javier Pacheco, secretary of trade union action and transitions of CCOO, in statements collected by The world.
The proposal to public consultation. The draft of Royal Decree placed in public consultation proposes to strengthen the principles that were already in the regulations. The document establishes that the records must be carried out personally and directly by the workers themselves, detailing the pauses and times of availability, thus differentiating the ordinary hours of the extraordinary.
The proposal opens the door for electronic registration mechanisms with authenticity guarantees – such as time seals or identity verification systems – although it is not specified that digitalization is mandatory in all cases, which leaves margin to keep the manual records and with it part of the limitations indicated By courts and Europe.
It also contemplates the control of the modifications made on the registration and the obligation to ensure immediate access by the Labor Inspection and the legal representation of the workers, as well as remote access in the case of electronic records.
No changes in sanctions. One of the measures that fell during the vote was the possibility of modifying the Smooth articles (Law on infractions and sanctions in the social order) that regulates the sanctioning regime for companies that fail to comply with the obligation to register the working day, in order to discourage fraud in the time registry.
At present, the sanction for offending companies is a maximum of 7,500 euros per company, while in the proposal that was voted together with the Law of Day Reduction It increased up to 10,000 euros for each worker (not by company) affected by an infraction.
Work for free. The EPA data From the second quarter of 2025 estimates that in Spain more than 7 million overtime weekly are made. Of these, 2,821,300 hours They are not remunerated They are not compensated. That is, the worker gives the employer 40.21% of those hours.
Despite these figures, the decree that the Government processes leaves the structural cracks that allowed the evasion of the norm Not registering real time worked by employees, when easily manipulable methods are used such as paper schedule records.
Image | Unspash (Erik McLean)
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings