The highest responsible for the Ministry of Labor, led by the Second Vice President, Yolanda Díaz, have repeatedly reiterated that after the votes of the right -wing formations —PP, Vox and Juns – vote against the bill for the reduction of the maximum legal day of 40 to 37.5 hours. And, even before negotiating a new text with the measure and initiating its processing, they intend to save a part of this rule that will decline: the one referring to the control of the workers’ days. To do this, work intends to move forward, via regulations – for which parliamentary approval is not needed – a reform of the time registration that hardens the requirements that companies must meet to carry out this control of the daily day of their workers. The Ministry has explained that it will launch the process this Thursday activating the public consultation, only one day after the parliamentary failure of the reduction of day.
Díaz confirmed on Wednesday at the gates of Congress his commitment to this reform: “The star piece of this standard (in reference to the reduction of the maximum legal day) is a digital record that effectively serves for time control. We are going to do what we have to do. Defend working people.” Moreover, it has specified that it is “absolutely violative of community regulations and the Court of Justice of the European Union has condemned Spain for not meeting the demands” for this control of the day.
Given this situation, the minister explained that the Government will reform this regulation so that “the registration is absolutely objective, verifiable in real time and of course digital. This means that this amount of extra hours that many of you will be directly documented and the Labor Inspection will know in real time if you are working or not”, Emilio Sánchez Hidalgo reports. The commitment to change the registration if the reduction of working hours did not go ahead is a commitment that comes from afar. Specifically, October 2024, almost a year ago, when after one of the meetings to negotiate this rule, the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey,
However, the Executive may not unilaterally approve and regulate the complete reform designed for this registration. The part of the elevation of fines and sanctions is regulated in the Law of Infractions and Sanctions of the Social Order (smooth), and any change in this rule would require the approval of a parliamentary majority, clearly very difficult to achieve for this issue at this time. In this way, the possibility that fines for breaching the time registration go from the maximum of 7,500 euros per company to 10,000 euros per worker affected by these breaches, as a job,. In the Ministry of Díaz, they remember, however, that the current punitive system for offenders, who repeatedly breached the regulations on the registration can even lead them to face the criminal process.
That said, Sources of the Administration have explained that the Government, through the Ministry of Labor, may, however, develop in a regulation the new requirements that companies must meet in the elaboration and operation of these mandatory records since 2019. Specifically, this reform intends to guarantee the objectivity, reliability and accessibility of the records through the establishment of additional requirements to the current ones.
Digital and personal annotations
Among them will be the mandatory use of digital media, so it will be invalid to make these annotations with paper and pencil – currently permitted; And the registration will be required to be fulfilled personally and directly by the worker, to guarantee their authenticity and traceability. Likewise, the use of understandable formats and the establishment of new Documentary obligations: work wants the total number of extra hours carried out to appear on the monthly payroll, regardless of how they are compensated. Immediate accessibility and interoperability will also be required with the Labor Inspection.
The Deputy Secretary General of Union Trade Union Policy and number two of the union, Fernando Luján, explains that, from the point of view of the legal technique, the Government may approve a royal decree, which regulates article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute. “That will be the enabling norm that can be developed in a regulation that the Executive can approve in a Royal Decree, for which it has obvious reasons of social urgency, because it cannot continue allowing three million extra hours to the week without gathering; and this type of decree does not require its validation in Parliament,” said this labor expert.
Luján has also indicated that “the companies and parties that will prevent the law being processed equal to repenting because if they had discussed, perhaps they could have amended the part of the registry in some way, but now that will not be possible.” And in that sense, he added that the unions will demand maximum hardness in this regulation and that it is approved in one of the Councils of Ministers that will be held this month of September.
However, entrepreneurs do not manifest nervousness for possible changes in the registry, but quite the opposite. Sources of the employer environment consider that, legally, in addition to not being able to harden the sanctions, the Government cannot decree through a regulation the interoperability of access to time control.
According to Alejandro Gil, a work partner of Maio Legal, it is quite feasible that the Government can regulate new conditions to execute the schedule records in companies and specifically force them to be completely digital and be the workers who make their time annotations. In fact, he argues that article 34.9, of the Workers’ Statute, which regulates this control since 2019, “is generic enough to be completed in a regulation.”
Moreover, this laborist believes that the Government will carry out this regulation because currently, as you remember, the concretions on how to make this registry are not even in a rule, but even the courts are governed by a guide edited by work. Another thing will be the possibilities that the Executive has to carry out the interconnection of these records with the Labor Inspection, because other issues related to access to personal data could come into play. While Gil also does not rule out this possibility.
