Time tracking non-compliance in Spain: What fines do employers face?

Time tracking non-compliance has been a legal risk for companies operating in Spain since May 2019, when keeping a daily record of each employee’s working hours became mandatory. The obligation applies to businesses of all sizes, with no exceptions. Most companies know this. What few realize is that the way they are currently meeting that obligation may not actually protect them.

Manual timesheets and spreadsheets take time to maintain, rely on employees entering information correctly, and often produce records that managers themselves do not fully trust. The Labor Inspectorate has been enforcing the law since day one, and a common compliance problem is not necessarily a complete refusal to keep records. Incomplete, inconsistent, or unverifiable records can also leave companies exposed to time tracking penalties. Under the proposed new legislation, the stakes could get significantly higher.

TL;DR—Key takeaways

• Time tracking non-compliance in Spain can lead to fines of €751 to €7,500, with much higher penalties for very serious violations
• Employers must keep complete working time records for four years and make them available for inspection
• Manual or inconsistent records can still leave companies exposed, even if some form of time tracking is in place
• Proposed reforms could raise fines to up to €10,000 per affected worker, although the legislation is still in progress

How many companies have faced penalties for time tracking non-compliance?

Enforcement began almost immediately after the law came into force. In the first months of application, 189 warning notices were issued, around 980 companies received a sanctioning report, and a total of 5,363 proceedings were opened for non-compliance. The average fine was €1,057.76. Roughly 20% of inspected companies were fined, with smaller businesses consistently showing the most difficulty implementing compliant systems.

In many cases, time tracking non-compliance can result from relying on manual methods that are easy to forget, difficult to verify, and time-consuming to maintain. Admin teams may spend significant time chasing missing entries and correcting timesheets, while the resulting records can still leave the company exposed. Automatic time tracking reduces that problem because the record is created when work starts, without employees having to remember to log it manually.

What are the current fines for time tracking non-compliance?

Fines for time tracking non-compliance can be significant. Non-compliance with the working time register is classified as a serious infraction under Spanish labor law. Serious infractions carry fines of between €751 and €7,500, divided into three grades:

• Minimum grade: €751 to €1,500
• Medium grade: €1,501 to €3,750
• Maximum grade: €3,751 to €7,500

The exact amount depends on the size of the company, the number of workers affected, and whether the infraction was intentional. If the Labor Inspectorate finds that a company not only failed to keep a register but also actively manipulated or destroyed records, the infraction can be escalated to very serious, with fines ranging from €7,501 to €225,018.

Reincidence is also a significant risk. Committing a second infraction of the same nature within 365 days of the first automatically results in the maximum-grade sanction. A company that receives a warning and does not act on it is therefore in a significantly worse position the next time an inspector visits.

Real-world examples of time tracking penalties

Time tracking penalties can vary substantially depending on the nature and seriousness of the violation. A company with no time tracking system at all can expect a fine of around €3,000. A company where records have been deliberately altered to hide overtime may receive a fine of €5,500 or more, depending on the number of workers affected.

Incomplete or inconsistent records—for example, when a team sometimes fills in a spreadsheet and sometimes does not—have resulted in fines of around €1,500. The most serious cases, where workers consistently exceed legal hour limits without an adequate record, can reach the current maximum of €7,500.

In each of these scenarios, the company may be spending time and effort on record-keeping that still leaves it exposed to working time record penalties. Automatic time tracking can produce a more reliable record with less administrative work.

What the Labor Inspectorate checks

When inspectors visit a company, they verify three things: whether a working time register exists, whether the system used for recording is valid, and whether the records themselves are valid. A paper sheet or Excel spreadsheet is increasingly difficult to defend as sufficient, particularly as the proposed new law moves toward mandatory digital registration.

Records must be kept for four years and must be available at any time to employees, their legal representatives, and the Labor Inspectorate. Missing records for any period within the three-year prescription window can result in fines applied across multiple periods, significantly multiplying the total cost.

Automatic time tracking software like DeskTime stores four years of records automatically, makes them accessible to both managers and employees at any time, and generates a complete entry for every working day without relying on anyone to manually input data. Using automatic time tracking software can therefore help businesses maintain more complete and accessible working time records while reducing administrative work.

What the proposed new law would change

The proposed working time reform, approved by the Council of Ministers in May 2025, goes significantly further than the current rules. Penalties for time tracking non-compliance with the new provisions on working hours and time registration would reach up to €10,000 per affected worker. This represents a fundamental shift from the current structure, where fines are applied per company rather than per worker.

The reduction in working hours to 37.5 per week has stalled in parliament, but the digital time registration requirement and accompanying sanctions continue through the legislative process separately. For businesses, this means time registration requirements could tighten either way.

Companies already using automatic time tracking software are largely prepared. Records are digital, complete, and stored without manual input, which aligns with the direction of the proposed requirements. If you want to learn more about the requirements introduced by the new law, we’ve compiled the key information here. 

What time tracking non-compliance could mean for a 20- to 100-person service business

For a growing service business, time tracking non-compliance could become substantially more expensive under the proposed rules. A 30-person company with no compliant time tracking system, for example, could face fines of up to €300,000 if all 30 workers were treated as affected and the maximum €10,000-per-worker penalty applied. Even under current rules, repeated non-compliance across multiple years of the prescription window can result in fines well into five figures.

For a business of this size, incomplete records create legal exposure that a fine can make very tangible, very quickly. Automatic time tracking addresses two issues at once: it reduces the administrative burden of manual entry and helps companies maintain complete, verifiable, and readily available records when an inspector requests them.

Stay up to date with Spain’s time tracking requirements

Spain’s proposed time tracking reforms are still moving through the legislative process, meaning the final requirements and time tracking penalties may change before the legislation comes into force. DeskTime will continue to monitor developments and update our resources as new requirements are confirmed.

The information in this article is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. For guidance on your company’s specific obligations or potential time tracking non-compliance, consult a qualified legal professional.

Article written by

Ilze Elizabete Strazda