The Social Chamber of the Supreme Court has confirmed in a ruling that breakfast time and arrival time, for which a courtesy margin of up to 15 minutes is included after the start time of the day, must be considered as time worked.
In its decision, the Supreme Court has upheld the appeals filed by the unions CC.OO., UGT and SECB against a ruling by the National Court. The case was specifically about CaixaBank's staff with rigid hours.
The ruling indicates that effective work time must be considered to be the marking carried out within 15 minutes after the agreed start time of the day, for those who have rigid schedule control and are not employees with the category of boss or similar. Even if they don't clock in on time.
The Court also dismisses the business appeal and maintains the right for breakfast time to also be counted as effective work time. In this case "for thus breaking away from agreements prior to the implementation of the new working day registration system," it is reported in a statement from the judicial entity.
The Supreme Court recalls that in another ruling last year it had recommended that "each company have a guide so that employees have the necessary guidelines to know at all times how to activate each of the functions and options in the registration tool. working day". In this case, CaixaBank prepared this guide, and understood that since the workday record must be a faithful reflection of reality, it was no longer possible for the minutes after the start time to be considered as actually worked.
However, the Supreme Court has concluded that anyone who arrives at work within 15 minutes after the start time of the day has the right to have their signing-in considered carried out on time. The Court explains that the working hours registration system cannot be used to introduce changes in the conditions, given that there was a company agreement dated 1991 that contains this provision.
