Spain's Labour Ministry targets October for clock-in decree

Legal note: This article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. The Royal Decree on digital time tracking is still being processed, has no approval date and has not been published in the BOE (Spain’s official gazette).

What Pérez Rey said at the unemployment figures press conference

Labour’s Secretary of State, Joaquín Pérez Rey, pointed to October for the digital time-tracking decree to go before the Council of Ministers (the Spanish Cabinet). He said so on Friday 2 October, at the press conference on September’s unemployment and Social Security registration figures, the same one at which he announced that the Labour Ministry will convene the minimum wage advisory committee this month. According to Noticias Trabajo, the outlet that asked him about the decree, the Ministry hopes to “clear the way to the Council of Ministers once and for all” over the course of the month.

Without giving an approval date, he said the review of the text that the Ministry began after the unfavourable opinion of the Council of State, Spain’s highest advisory body, was complete:

“We have been working to refine that regulation, we have worked so that the objections raised by the Council of State are, as far as possible, overcome and, therefore, to guarantee the integrity and legal certainty of the text.”

That work, he added, can “be considered concluded” after a “very considerable” effort. And he stood by the same model as ever: “I believe we are now in a position to move forward with processing this new time-tracking system, which has to be digital, which has to be accessible to the Inspectorate and which must once and for all do away with the practice of writing down on a blank sheet of paper when you come in and when you leave, which is always synonymous with fraud”.

The three changes to the time-tracking decree

Pérez Rey cited three changes. None of them has yet been published as draft wording.

1. Occupational health and safety as the legal basis. According to Noticias Trabajo, the Ministry has made an effort “to find legal bases for its powers linked to risk prevention and occupational health to justify the legality of the decree”.
2. Stronger data protection, along the lines requested by the Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD) and the Council of State itself.
3. A bigger role for collective bargaining in how time recording is organised. The reports do not detail which aspects will be left to collective agreements.

The first targets the objection about legal rank, one of the opinion’s three essential objections (the other two, data protection and the room left for collective bargaining, correspond to the other two changes). According to the Council of State, the draft “does not merely supplement or implement what the law provides” but “imposes new obligations and burdens on employers and workers, thereby exceeding the proper scope of regulatory power” (the Council of State’s unfavourable opinion). That criticism was made of a decree implementing the Workers’ Statute, Spain’s core employment law, whose article 34.9 requires working hours to be recorded but does not require the record to be digital.

The Occupational Risk Prevention Act (Law 31/1995) offers another basis. Its article 6 requires the Government to lay down by regulation the “minimum requirements that working conditions must meet to protect the safety and health of workers”. Pérez Rey has already framed time tracking in those terms: according to Noticias Trabajo, he said excessive working hours have “a very strong impact on absenteeism” because they harm employees’ health. If the CEOE employers’ association goes ahead with its announced challenge to the decree, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether digital time tracking is an occupational health measure that can be introduced by regulation or a new burden that needed a law.

What was left unclear

• Whether the text goes back to the Council of State. A week ago, La Voz de Galicia and El Correo reported that the Government was seeking the body’s approval of the revised version (the decree misses September too). The reports on the 2 October press conference do not say whether that consultation has taken place or whether the Ministry no longer considers it necessary.
• Pérez Rey spoke of “over the course of the month of October”, without pointing to any specific Cabinet meeting.
• When it will be enforceable. In September, Pérez Rey himself explained that the rules will only apply once a ministerial order sets out the technical requirements for the system: “That is where we will set the entry into force”. That order still has no public draft.

October comes after June, July and September

On 2 June, also at the unemployment figures press conference, Pérez Rey said the decree would be approved before the summer. Then came the July Cabinet meeting, the postponement to September agreed with the Economy Ministry and Yolanda Díaz’s announcement on 9 September that it would be approved “immediately”. None of those deadlines was met, and the Cabinet declared the processing urgent on 30 September 2025, more than a year ago.

The unions are still waiting. El Mundo reported on 30 September that, according to CCOO and UGT sources, the ultimatum still stands and they will not sign any agreement with the Government, including the next minimum wage (SMI) increase, until the rule is approved. The SMI expert committee that the Ministry wants to convene this month is the preliminary step to that negotiation.

The full timeline is in our guide to the status of the time-tracking Royal Decree.

Another rule takes effect on 5 October

On Monday 5 October, Royal Decree 723/2026, published in the BOE on 15 September, takes effect. It regulates the information employers must give each worker in writing about pay, working hours, shifts, overtime and the use of algorithms, and it does not affect time recording. The details are in the new information you must give employees in writing.

What it means for your business

Until there is a decree, article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute, in force since 2019, applies: a daily record with start and finish times, kept for four years and available to employees, their representatives and the Labour Inspectorate. Failing to keep it is a serious infringement, with fines of €751 to €7,500.

Paper is still legal if it is reliable, but Pérez Rey calls writing down start and finish times on a blank sheet of paper “synonymous with fraud”, and in overtime claims the courts have been siding with the worker’s version when the company’s record is kept by hand or is easy to alter. If you are going to change systems, choose one that already meets what the draft provides for (requirements time-tracking software must meet) so you do not have to migrate twice.

How Cleverfy handles it

Cleverfy already records working hours as the draft decree provides, without waiting for the BOE.

• Staff clock in from the mobile app, from the web or at a tablet kiosk with a PIN, with the exact time of arrival, departure and breaks.
• No clock-in can be changed silently. If the company corrects a clock-in, the worker can accept or reject the change; a rejection is recorded as a discrepancy, and to keep the correction the company has to justify it and state which legal representatives it notified. The original value, date and author are stored.
• The Labour Inspectorate can be given its own access to view and export the records; the system logs every query.
• Records are kept for four years, and the compliance report checks that they are complete and that overtime does not exceed the legal cap.

It is up and running in ten minutes, from €1.20 per employee per month on the annual plan (see pricing and all features).

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Sources:

• Europa Press, 2 October 2026
• Demócrata, 2 October 2026
• Noticias Trabajo, 2 October 2026
• El Mundo, 30 September 2026
• Council of State, opinion 188/2026 (PDF)
• Law 31/1995 on Occupational Risk Prevention, art. 6 (BOE)
• Workers’ Statute, art. 34.9 (BOE)
• LISOS (Law on Infringements and Penalties in the Social Order), arts. 7.5 and 40 (BOE)

Photo: Joaquín Pérez Rey presents the unemployment figures at the Ministry of Labour (file photo, June 2020). Ministry of Labour and Social Economy, reproduction authorised provided the source is cited. Cropped image.