Spain's digital time-tracking law: September, still no decree

September 2026 has arrived, and the decree meant to make employee clock-in digital and directly interoperable with Spain’s Labour Inspectorate still hasn’t reached the Council of Ministers. On September 2, Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo declined to commit to a date, despite pressure from unions UGT and CCOO to get it approved before the month is out — he only said it would happen “as soon as possible.” It’s the second time this year the timeline has slipped, after a July delay triggered by a critical opinion from the Council of State. While the new decree stays in limbo, Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 — in force for seven years now — keeps applying in full, penalties included.

What happened this week

The agreement between the Labour and Economy ministries to push the reform “after summer” had raised expectations that September would finally bring the new Royal Decree. But according to reporting on Cuerpo’s September 2 statements, the government neither confirmed nor ruled out approval this month: the minister simply repeated that the underlying commitment stands, without naming a deadline. El Diario had already reported in July that the September push was a response to the need to rework the text after objections from Spain’s Council of State, whose March 23 opinion found the draft failed to properly assess the impact on small businesses, didn’t account for sector-specific realities, and didn’t adequately guarantee worker data protection.

What’s known about the draft hasn’t changed since July: mandatory digital clock-in for every company with employees, regardless of size or sector (only senior management and corporate-body members without an employment relationship are excluded), real-time access for the Labour Inspectorate and worker representatives, and the ability to distinguish regular from overtime hours. None of this is approved yet, so it’s worth treating specific dates or penalty figures for the new law with caution while it’s still in the pipeline.

What’s already mandatory, decree or no decree

Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 doesn’t depend on this reform to already require, today, that every Spanish company:

• Log daily the start and end time of each employee’s working day, including breaks when the collective agreement or company policy requires it.
• Keep records for 4 years, accessible to the employee, their legal representatives, and the Labour Inspectorate.
• Provide access to that history without delay when requested.

The law doesn’t mandate a specific system — paper, a signed spreadsheet, or an app are all valid as long as the record is reliable and verifiable. But paper and manual spreadsheets are precisely what generates the most trouble in an inspection: easy to lose, easy to backfill after the fact, easy to alter without a trace.

Penalties that already apply

Failing to keep a time record, keeping an incomplete one, or not retaining it for the required period is classified as a serious infringement under Article 7.5 of the Workers’ Statute in relation to the LISOS, with fines of €751 to €7,500 per workplace. This isn’t a threat tied to a decree that doesn’t exist yet — it’s the penalty regime that’s been in force since 2019.

What the slipping deadline means for your company

If the Council of Ministers approves the decree in the coming weeks with a typical six-month adaptation period, companies wouldn’t need a digital system running until well into 2027. But betting on that delay has two problems: the approval date is still unconfirmed, and the underlying Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 obligation isn’t waiting on anyone. Every month a company clocks in on paper or an uncontrolled spreadsheet is a month of exposure to an inspection — whether the new decree lands in September, in November, or in 2027.

1. Audit how your team clocks in today. A system running “from memory” or a shared spreadsheet won’t hold up well in an inspection, even if a record technically exists.
2. Move to a digital system now, without waiting for the decree: it protects you under the current penalty regime and avoids a rushed migration once the new rule takes effect.
3. Check that it retains 4 years of history and that employees, worker representatives, and inspectors can access it without depending on someone digging it up manually.
4. Log split shifts and overtime separately: it’s one of the things Labour Inspectorate visits scrutinize most.

We build and maintain QWorker, our own time-tracking software, because we kept seeing small businesses stuck between paper and expensive tools built for large workforces. It supports clock-in from mobile, browser, or a shared NFC-enabled tablet, includes weekly digital signing of records, and keeps the 4 years of history the law requires, ready for an inspection. Plans start at €2.50/employee/month, no lock-in, with a free trial and no card required.

When a standard tool isn’t enough

Payroll firms managing time tracking for dozens of client companies, businesses with unusual shift patterns, or companies that need clock-in integrated with an existing ERP or e-commerce platform usually need more than a generic SaaS tool. Through our AI and software consulting work, we look at what actually fits your operation — standard or custom-built — before recommending anything.

The bottom line

The digital clock-in decree still has no approval date even though September, the promised month, has arrived, and Minister Cuerpo hasn’t committed to closing it out this month. That doesn’t change what the law already requires: Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 mandates logging working hours, keeping records for 4 years, and having them ready for inspection, with fines of up to €7,500 per workplace. Waiting for the new decree to go digital only adds risk while the timeline stays unconfirmed.

Want to check whether your company’s time tracking would survive an inspection today? Get in touch: the first consultation is free, and we reply within 24 hours.