What Is a Work Day (Jornada Laboral) in Spain?

A work day (jornada laboral) is the time an employee spends on their job under their contract, measured in daily, weekly or annual hours. In Spain, the maximum ordinary work day is 40 hours per week of effective work on average per year, and daily time tracking is mandatory for every company.

"Jornada de trabajo" and "jornada laboral" are synonyms in Spanish: both refer to the time an employee spends at their job as agreed in their contract and collective bargaining agreement. The difference is one of usage rather than meaning: "jornada de trabajo" is mostly used in legal texts and collective agreements, while "jornada laboral" is the more common term in everyday language and in time-tracking systems. In both cases, the concept includes effective working time and any paid breaks, and excludes non-counted rest periods unless the collective agreement states otherwise. Whether referring to it in the singular or talking about several work days across different days or employees, the underlying concept is the same.

Spanish law allows a work day to be organized in different ways, always within the limit of 40 hours per week on average per year. Choosing one type or another depends on the collective agreement, the sector and the needs of each role. These are the main types of work schedules in Spain:

Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 (RD-Ley 8/2019) requires every company in Spain, regardless of size or sector, to record each employee's work day daily, including the start and end time. The regulation reinforcing this requirement for 2026 goes further: it removes the validity of paper or spreadsheet records, with very limited exceptions, and requires reliable, tamper-proof digital systems with change traceability and real-time remote access for the Labor Inspectorate. Records must be kept for a minimum of 4 years, and biometric systems such as fingerprint or facial recognition are restricted or prohibited to protect employees' personal data.

This requirement has pushed many companies to replace their spreadsheets or paper sign-in sheets with a digital time-tracking system before the new regulation comes fully into force.

Tracking a work day means recording, for each employee, the start and end time of their shift, plus any applicable breaks. With a digital system like OpenJornada, employees clock in and out from their browser or the app installed on their phone, with no paperwork, and every record is digitally signed to guarantee it can't be altered afterward. Employees can also review their history, request corrections if they spot an error, and download their signed monthly report, while administrators can see at any time who's working and who isn't.

A work day and vacation days are closely related: vacation days don't count as effective working time, but they must still be reflected in the employee's history so that hours, absences and available day balances are always calculated correctly. OpenJornada includes an absence and vacation module that calculates each employee's balance on the fly, based on each company's policy, and lets you configure custom absence types beyond vacations, such as sick leave or other permits. That balance and those absences are automatically included in the monthly report alongside the rest of the time records, so administrators and employees always see the same data, with no parallel spreadsheets or mismatches.