Heatwaves and working hours, what a company can do and how to record it

Legal note: This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. The rules cited are in force; how they apply in practice depends on the sector, the role and the circumstances of each weather warning.

Spain is going through yet another heatwave and AEMET is keeping orange and red warnings in place across much of the country. At those alert levels the law gives companies several levers to reorganise work, and in some cases it requires them to use them. Any of those decisions, changing shifts, sending staff home or switching to remote work, has to be reflected in the time record.

Adjusting or reducing working hours when AEMET flags orange or red

Royal Decree 486/1997, which sets the minimum health and safety requirements for workplaces, requires the company to adapt working conditions by reducing or adjusting working hours when AEMET or the relevant regional body issues an orange or red warning for adverse weather and the ordinary preventive measures do not guarantee the protection of workers. It applies to extreme heat just as it does to rain, snow, wind or ultraviolet radiation.

What causes disputes is who decides that “the preventive measures are not enough”. An orange warning requires an assessment of whether the ordinary measures protect the staff, and hours are only reduced or moved when that assessment says they do not. In outdoor work during peak hours (construction, farming, delivery), that assessment rarely ends without changes. In an office with working air conditioning, the obligation can be met without touching the schedule. The Inspectorate will look at whether this assessment exists and is documented, not the shift manager’s sense of how hot it felt.

There is an operational detail that makes life harder for small businesses: AEMET warnings do not always match those of the regional bodies, and the same area can be on orange for one scale and yellow for another. When in doubt, the safest reference for a decision is the official warning in force at the time of the change, kept alongside the record.

The paid leave of up to four days

Since 2024, Royal Decree-law 8/2024 has recognised a paid leave of up to four days when a worker cannot reach their workplace, or travel along the routes needed to get there, for two reasons: recommendations, limitations or travel bans issued by the authorities, or a situation of serious and imminent risk arising from adverse weather. It is paid, it does not use up holiday and it does not count as an unjustified absence.

It is worth being honest about how this fits a heatwave. The leave was designed with events like the DANA storm and floods that cut off roads in mind, situations where the inability to move around is obvious. Applying it to a heat episode requires a genuine inability to get to work or a serious risk backed by the authorities. Discomfort from high temperatures, on its own, falls outside the scope. When that situation does arise and four days are not enough, the leave continues until the circumstance justifying it disappears, and the company can still turn to a temporary layoff on grounds of force majeure under Article 47.6 of the Workers’ Statute. The sensible course for the worker is to notify the company beforehand and keep proof of the official warning.

Remote work, the middle path

If the activity allows it and the state of communications makes it viable, the company can agree to remote work on those days under Law 10/2021 on remote work. It is not an obligation, but it tends to be the least disruptive option for anyone who can carry out their tasks from home.

The part almost nobody documents properly

All of these measures share one blind spot: the record. Reducing working hours requires documenting the risk assessment behind it. A change of schedule has to be reflected in that day’s time record. And the four-day leave must appear as a justified absence, not as an unexplained gap. If the Inspectorate reviews the records and finds clock-ins that do not add up with no explanation noted, it issues an infringement report. LISOS sets fines for time-tracking infringements at up to 7,500 euros per workplace.

On top of that, the time record must be kept for four years. A badly made entry this week is still open to review by the Inspectorate long after the heat has passed.

How Cleverfy helps you record it

Applying the measure is the company’s decision. Recording it properly should not take more effort than making it, and that is where Cleverfy takes the friction away.

Change of hours. You adjust the shift for the alert days and staff clock in during the new window. The record keeps the real clock-in and clock-out times, and those shifts do not show up as lateness or an incident.

Four-day leave. It is recorded as an absence. You have predefined types (holiday, personal days, various kinds of leave) and you can create a custom one, “Adverse weather leave”, choosing whether it draws down the holiday balance and whether it requires supporting documentation. It stays as a justified absence, kept apart from the count of hours worked.

And if you would rather not configure anything by hand, you ask Cleverfy AI. You explain what you need, for example “create a heat leave from the 14th to the 17th and apply it to these people”, and it leaves the absence type created and the absences recorded within minutes. When it has to be reflected retroactively, instead of going employee by employee, the AI records the absences for you.

The company still decides whether that leave is paid; Cleverfy makes sure it is recorded, traced and accessible for the Inspectorate, which is what the law requires.

Not using Cleverfy yet? You can try it for free and have these cases sorted before the next AEMET alert.

Sources

• Royal Decree 486/1997, minimum health and safety requirements for workplaces.
• Royal Decree-law 8/2024, paid leave for inability to access the workplace.
• Law 10/2021 on remote work.