Mistreatment of Time Tracking Rationale and Disciplinary Dismissal
Repeated refusal to comply with the requirement to clock in and out can be a valid ground for disciplinary dismissal. This was affirmed by the Galicia Higher Court of Justice in a recent ruling, which confirms the termination of an employee who, for several weeks, failed to record his hours, disregarded a sanction by the company to correct the behavior, and continued to neglect time logging.
The judges rejected the employee’s appeal and deemed the disciplinary dismissal to be lawful. Consequently, the dismissal carries no severance pay.
Since May 12, 2019, all companies in Spain have to operate a system that accurately and reliably records the actual time workers spend on site. Over those years, the habit of clocking in has spread across organizations with varying degrees of commitment. In line with ongoing wage and hour discussions, the Ministry of Labour has signaled intentions to reform the time-tracking statute to boost its effectiveness.
Data from the Labour Inspectorate shows a notable share of companies not complying with proper timekeeping. It is the responsibility of each organization to maintain a truthful time-tracking system and to require employees to complete it daily with precise hours worked.
Galician judges highlighted these points in a ruling reported by the Economist & Jurist portal, which this outlet has reviewed. The document regards the repeated refusal to log work hours as a sufficient basis for disciplinary dismissal.
Multiple Warnings
The employee who was dismissed, a podiatrist from A Coruña, faced a disciplinary dismissal in September 2023 for a serious and blameworthy breach of work obligations. The dismissal letter stated the charge, noting that the employee did not clock in for two consecutive weeks while others logged hours through a mobile app on their devices.
The company did not dismiss the employee for a single lapse; he had previously been warned and penalized for the same behavior. He even challenged the first sanction. The court found the employer acted in accordance with the disciplinary code. A second sanction, for the same cause, resulted in a 15-day suspension without pay and ultimately the loss of his job.
As the company stated in the dismissal letter: despite multiple warnings, the employee had not corrected his conduct; the firm was left with no choice but to proceed with a disciplinary dismissal, noting that warnings and suspensions did not alter the employee’s attitude toward logging work hours. The employee had logged only two days in August and logged time inconsistently for entry times, with delays ranging from thirty minutes to over two hours, during the month he was dismissed.
The court underscored a pattern of conduct that persisted immediately after prior disciplinary actions and maintained an identical stance. This pattern supported the decision to approve the disciplinary dismissal, which does not entitle the employee to a severance payment but does provide access to unemployment benefits.
The Ministry of Labour is preparing changes to the current time-tracking framework. All businesses, regardless of size, would be required to log employee hours electronically. Paper timesheets with entry and exit boxes would no longer be a valid option, according to the latest draft of the wage-hour reform circulated by the employer associations and unions and reported by El Periódico, part of Prensa Ibérica.