Timesheet management

Nowadays, many companies and employees agree to redistribute weekly working hours irregularly. This is something known as a time bag and is a very useful tool for solving exceptional situations or adapting to production peaks.

This is a way of distributing the working day in a flexible way that can improve the reconciliation of personal and work life. To implement a work plan like this, it is necessary to keep an exhaustive monitoring of the time control.

In addition, both what the law says and what the different agreements mark must be taken into account. If we want to have everything under control, using technology that guides us and optimizes the process is undoubtedly a more than recommended option.

What does the work timesheet consist of?

The working hours exchange is a colloquial term to refer to the system of irregular distribution of working hours. This measure was officially incorporated in Spain in February 2012 through the Royal Decree-Law 3/2012, which introduced urgent measures with the objective of adapting the law to the reality of the labor market.

The time exchange is not intended to reformulate the concept of the working day, but rather it allows for a redistribution of the hours worked throughout the year. It is a system that offers greater flexibility both for companies, who can redistribute work shifts and their workforce with respect to the current level of production, and for employees, who can accumulate days off to improve family balance.

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How does the stock market work in a company?

The stock exchange, by default, allows 10% of the annual working day to be redistributed irregularly. In any case, this redistribution must respect the minimum daily and weekly rest periods, and the number of hours worked must not exceed the legal limit or the number of hours agreed by contract. If so, they will be counted as overtime.

The working day can only be redistributed over working days, so weekends and holidays are excluded. If this happens, it should also be counted as overtime.

How do you compensate for these overtime hours that are accumulating in the stock market?

There are three formulas that companies can do:

Days off:

Workers can accumulate stock exchange hours until they get one or more days off, which can be requested after the peak of demand.

Payment:

The company may also offer payment for overtime work as established in the collective agreement or by contract.

Reduction of working hours:

On the other hand, it is also possible to deduct accumulated excess time from the stock market by reducing working hours.

What is legal and what is illegal in the timesheet

The timesheet is a completely legal tool, which, however, must always respect certain rules. Some of the most notable are:

➡️ The number of daily working hours marked in the collective agreement cannot be exceeded (9 hours by default).

➡️ Only 10% of total annual hours can be redistributed.

➡️ The timesheet cannot be applied to holidays or non-working days.

➡️ Nor can it apply to employees with reduced working hours.

➡️ The company must notify the employee 5 days in advance of how their working hours are going to be redistributed. If they want to request any changes, employees must also respect these 5 days of notice.

➡️ The daily or weekly rest hours of employees cannot be disturbed.

➡️ The time bag should only be applied in justifiable productivity situations. Otherwise, it could have legal consequences.

➡️ If the worker is working intensive hours, the weekly working day cannot exceed 36 hours.

➡️ If you have to return hours to the company, all these conditions must be respected. The negative balance must be offset before the end of the year.

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