File before going out for a coffee or a cigarette

Many companies that turned a blind eye and allowed their workers to go out to have a cigarette, sometimes in the company of other colleagues, can now take refuge in the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court has included in its arguments that until now these short breaks were allowed as part of the effective working time, but that when implementing the obligation to register them, companies should count them as rest time and they could, therefore, claim a recovery of this accumulated time.

The judges understand, and confirm this in their interlocutory, that it is not proven that breaks to smoke or drink coffee are part of the working day, as it is legal for companies to oblige to sign up.

On this subject, it is important to remember that from May 2019 it is mandatory for companies to monitor the hours of employees in order to carry out a record of arrivals and departures and to be able to know the number of overtime hours they work.

A few days ago the press echoed the penalties of more than 300,000 euros that the Labor Inspectorate imposed on a total of 292 companies in Tarragona for failing to comply with their obligation to have time records or for committing irregularities in the control of these records.

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