Digital time tracking: Spanish decree to be approved before 21 June

Legal note: This article is informational and does not constitute legal advice. The Royal Decree is in the final stage of processing and has not yet been published in the Official Gazette (BOE).

There’s a date now: before summer

Yolanda Díaz has confirmed it. The Royal Decree forcing Spanish employers to register working hours through digital means will be approved before summer — that is, before 21 June 2026. With no caveats and, more importantly, “with no substantial changes compared to the draft currently being processed.”

She said it on 3 May during an interview with La Vanguardia, and repeated it throughout the week in statements picked up by El Mundo, AS, MARCA, Diario de Avisos and other outlets. Spain’s Second Vice President and Minister of Labour will bring it to the Council of Ministers via the next meeting of the Government’s Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs.

In plain English: less than seven weeks left.

What changes (and what doesn’t)

The text reaching the Council of Ministers is essentially the same one that received an unfavorable opinion from the Council of State in March. Díaz has been clear: the opinion is non-binding and the Government is moving forward.

Key points of the draft Royal Decree arriving intact:

• Mandatory digital registration, objective and verifiable. Goodbye to paper and Excel sheets.
• Non-modifiable entries without joint authorization from employer and employee, with full traceability of changes.
• Remote and immediate access for the Labour Inspectorate — one of the most sensitive points.
• 4-year data retention.
• Logging of breaks, overtime and modifications down to the exact hour and minute.
• Fines of up to €10,000 per affected worker.

What Díaz said

The minister didn’t pull her punches this week.

On the Council of State, she was blunt:

“The fact that in the 21st century the Council of State talks about turnstiles says a lot about a country that no longer exists.”

For Díaz, the advisory body has fallen behind. Most Spanish companies already use digital systems — the Royal Decree just formalizes that.

She also repeated the figure she has been quoting for months: in Spain, around 2.5 million irregular overtime hours are worked every year, unpaid and not registered for social security contributions. Digital registration is the tool to bring them to light.

And she didn’t hold back with the opposition. She accused the PP and Junts of blocking the reform, “held captive — some by Vox, others by Aliança Catalana.” The implicit message is clear: if it doesn’t pass through Parliament, it’ll pass by Royal Decree. And it will.

Realistic timeline

Milestone	Estimated date
Delegated Commission for Economic Affairs	Coming weeks
Council of Ministers	Before 21 June
Publication in the Official Gazette (BOE)	Right after
Entry into force	Pending final text, likely with an adaptation period

There’s no exact date for the Council of Ministers, but the ceiling is 21 June. The adaptation period set by the decree itself will start counting from publication in the BOE. As a rule, decrees of this kind tend to grant at least 2 months to comply, but we’ll have to see the final text.

What you should do now

If your company still tracks hours on paper, in Excel or with a system that doesn’t meet the draft requirements, the time to move is now. Not for dramatic effect — pure math:

• A clock-in history can’t be improvised. Inspectors can request data going back. The earlier you start, the better.
• Migrating under pressure is expensive. When the decree hits the BOE, every provider will be swamped at once.
• Your team needs to get used to it. Building the habit of clocking in takes weeks, not days.
• Paper systems aren’t valid even today — Spain’s Supreme Court case law has been confirming that for a while.

What to demand from a time-tracking software

To meet the draft Royal Decree, your system needs at minimum:

1. Digital clock-in (web, mobile app, kiosk or similar) — no paper
2. Tamper-proof logs with full traceability
3. Exact hour and minute for entries, exits and breaks
4. Remote access for the Labour Inspectorate
5. Secure storage for 4 years
6. A monthly summary available to each worker alongside their payslip

If your current solution doesn’t cover any of these, it doesn’t comply. Full stop. You can review the full Royal Decree requirements here.

What it costs to comply

This is the part that surprises most SMEs. Complying with digital time tracking doesn’t require thousands of euros. Solutions like Cleverfy cover every requirement of the draft from €1.50 per employee per month (see full pricing).

For a 10-person company, that’s €15 a month. Less than the minimum fine for a single non-compliance issue caught in an inspection.

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Want to get ahead of the BOE? With Cleverfy you can digitize your time tracking in 10 minutes and start building history before it becomes mandatory. Try it free for 14 days →

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Sources: Público, Deia, Press Digital, Diario de Avisos

Photo: Yolanda Díaz at a press conference, 20 July 2022 (Washington DC). © U.S. Department of Labor / Shawn T Moore, CC BY 2.0.