A new law has made compulsory for every employer to keep a registry of hours worked by every employee. 

With the view to track unpaid overtime the new law makes the employer responsible to keep a record of the hours worked for 4 years, even in the case of ex-employees. 

The means used to do that might be electronically or a simple spread sheet that the worker can sign. 

This information must be kept in the place of work and should be shown immediately under request of a visiting work inspector. 

Who does it apply to

The first point of the official guide published by the Work Ministry states that “ the working time registry applies to the totality of employees, independently of their professional category, to all sectors of activity and all the companies, whatever their size or type of organisation […]. The companies are also obliged to keep the daily registry regarding to “movable” worker, sale persons, temporary workers, remote workers and related to any other circumstance in which the work is not fully carried out in the working centre of the company”

Clearly, it applies to every case.

Flexible schedule.

If you have agreed a flexible timetable with your employees, you still need to keep records of the hours. These will not be considered overtime until they exceed the amount of hours agreed in a week.

Remote workers

Remote workers who do not need to be present in the business premises also need to keep track of their timing and submit it to the main office. 

Pauses and breaks

The registry can contains information about lunch breaks and others in order to determine the “actual working time”. Thought the law is not specific on this point. 

Self-Employed

This new rule does not apply to self-employed. They do not have to keep registry of their working hours.

You can download a spreadsheet with a format for the general case. It does not need to be rigid; you are free to adapt it to your specific needs.