Timekeeping for the domestic employee: yes, it is mandatory

For years, it was taken for granted that the peculiarities of domestic work exempted it from keeping a work time record, as is required in any other company. That interpretation has changed. We explain why it is now mandatory, what exactly it must include, and what risk you run as an employer if you don’t keep it.

Why it is now mandatory (and why it wasn’t so clear before)

The change comes from two recent judicial resolutions, not from a new law written specifically for the family home:

• The Court of Justice of the European Union, in a judgment of December 2024 (case C-531/2023), considered it incompatible with European regulations to exclude domestic workers from a system that objectively determines how many hours they work and how they are distributed.
• The High Court of Justice of the Basque Country, in March 2025, directly applied this doctrine to a full-time domestic worker, confirming that article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute —the rule that mandates work time recording— also applies to this special regime.

An important nuance for clarity: there is no new article in Royal Decree 1620/2011 that literally states “you must record working hours”. What exists is a consolidated judicial interpretation that makes this general obligation of the Workers’ Statute also enforceable in domestic service. In practice, the result is the same —you must keep the record—, but it is important to understand that the source is jurisprudence, not a specific and new precept of the special regime.

What the record must include, at a minimum

It is not enough to generically note “worked from 9 am to 2 pm”. The record must reflect:

• The start and end time of each workday.
• The actual working hours performed that day.
• The agreed presence times, if they exist, and the hours during which work was effectively performed (remember that, as we explain in our article on overnight stays and presence hours, if tasks are performed during that time, they count as actual working hours).

Do you need an app or a special system?

No. The law does not require any specific technological system. The record can be written or digital; the only requirements are that it be:

• Objective: that it reflects reality, not an estimate.
• Reliable: that it cannot be easily manipulated.
• Accessible: that the worker can consult it and, if requested, obtain a copy.

A daily record sheet, signed by both parties, is perfectly valid. What’s important is not the tool, but that it exists and is consultable.

What if I don’t keep the record? The real risk

Here’s the part that should matter most to you as an employer: the obligation to record working hours falls to you, not your domestic worker. This has a very significant practical consequence in case of conflict.

If at any point there is a discrepancy regarding the hours actually worked —for example, your domestic worker claims unpaid overtime, or alleges that they remained at the household’s disposal outside of the agreed schedule—, the absence of a record works against you, not in your favor. If you cannot prove how many hours were actually worked because there is no record, the courts tend to give credibility to what the worker can prove by other means.

That is to say: not keeping a record does not protect you from anything. Quite the opposite, it leaves you without documentary defense precisely when you need it most.

Working hours, on-call time, and breaks: what must be recorded

For the record to be meaningful, it’s worth remembering the limits it must reflect:

If you have doubts about how to distinguish effective work from on-call time —something that also affects how you should reflect it in the record—, we explain it in detail in our article on overnight stays, on-call hours, and effective work.

Keep and have the records signed: merely noting them down is not enough

Keeping the record up to date is only half of compliance. The other half, which many employers overlook, is custody:

• The record must be signed, ideally by both parties (employer and worker), so that it has true probative value if it ever needs to be proven. An unsigned record is much easier to challenge in case of conflict.
• You must keep it for a minimum of 4 years, the same period established by article 34.9 of the Workers’ Statute for working hour records in any employment relationship. This is not a specific period for domestic service, but the general period that also applies here.
• During these 4 years, the record must be available to your domestic worker and, if applicable, to the Inspección de Trabajo y Seguridad Social (Spanish Labour and Social Security Inspectorate). Although a physical inspection visit to the home is less common in the family home setting, if any procedure or claim is initiated, the documentation may still be required from you.
• Do not destroy it prematurely, not even if the employment relationship has ended: the 4-year retention period is counted independently of whether the employee continues to work for you or not.

A record that exists but is not signed, or that you cannot locate when needed, practically has the same value as having no record at all.

So that you don’t have to create the system from scratch, we attach a work time log template adapted for domestic household service, ready to be filled out and signed each month, and which includes all the fields we have explained in this article: start and end times, effective work, presence times and their compensation.

Summary: what you need to do