The National Court guarantees discounting breaks in the working day. Specifically for snacks, breakfast or coffee, with the aim of subtracting this time from the total number of hours actually worked.
The above statement originated as a result of the abandonment of a lawsuit that sought the nullity of the time computations referenced in the company as a consequence of the implementation of the working day registration system. In such a way that the total calculation of hours was not affected by the breaks for breakfast, smoking or coffee.
Discounting breaks in the working day.
The implementation of the hourly register established by the company, in which the indicated breaks were recorded, was considered by the plaintiff to be fraudulent when modifying, to the detriment of the workers, the working conditions existing prior to the implementation of the hourly register. Thus, it was sought that the National Court support the nullity of the time recording that was being carried out.
Subsequently, on December 10, 2019, the General Council of the Judiciary issued a ruling in which it stated that the changes introduced by the defendant’s time recording system did not substantially alter the working conditions set out in Article 41 of the Workers’ Statute. As indicated in the ruling, it has not been demonstrated that prior to the implementation of the time recording system, the company considered these breaks as working time, although control systems were only used in order to guarantee occupational safety in the access to the facilities.
Therefore, continuing with the exemplified case, it can be stated that both the National Court and the Supreme Court, endorse the company’s decision. This allows the company to require its staff to sign on when they take the breaks mentioned above. Since they should not be counted as effective working time.
Time recording.
In view of this, we insist on the importance and obligation for all companies to keep a daily control and time register of all their employees.
We remind you of some of the points that the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate considers unavoidable:
- To reflect both entry and exit times in all time records, both full-time and part-time.
In the case of part-time workers, we remind you of the need to provide workers with a copy of the monthly hours record together with the corresponding salary slip. However, in order to justify the delivery of this, it is necessary for the company to file a copy, duly signed by the worker. Otherwise, it will be assumed that the worker has not been informed and therefore the Inspectorate reserves the right to issue a financial penalty in view of this. On the company side, the Sanctioning Regime may be applied to those workers who refuse to sign the time records. - In line with the previous point, if the company does not have the records in the cases of part-time work, the inspection will understand that they are full time. Leaving the company obliged to pay contributions for the periods that have not been prescribed, being impossible to defer or divide the amount. In addition, the worker may claim up to a maximum period of one year of wage differences.
Consequences
Workplace inspections are currently underway. As well as requirements to provide in a short period of time certain documentation, to verify that in the companies the corresponding hourly records are being carried out. That these are correct and that in the case of overtime these are paid and quoted correctly. If the company does not carry out the corresponding hourly record, it may be fined between:
- 60 if it is qualified as light in its minimum degree
- to 187,000 at its highest level if it is rated as very serious. In cases where a considerable increase in overtime over the legal margin of 80 hours per year is noted and where it is not adequately paid. Or the performance of overtime in the case of employees with a part-time employment contract. Without prejudice to the entry of the consequent no longer entered into the Social Security or the loss of access to the various benefits.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the experts of our Labour Consulting Dept
Arrabe Integra
Labour Consulting and HR Management