Spain's Supreme Court rules on whether breakfast break counts as working time

Taking a break from work to regain strength and have a coffee is part of the working day, as recognised by the social division of Spain's Supreme Court, which ruled in a judgment that breakfast time and the clock-in grace period (up to 15 minutes after the official start of the workday) must be considered as working time.

The Supreme Court has upheld the appeals lodged by three trade unions (CCOO, UGT and SECB) against a ruling of the National High Court concerning Caixabank staff with rigid working hours. The ruling states that 'clock-in' time carried out in the 15 minutes following the agreed start time of the working day must be considered effective working time for those who have rigid timetable control and are not employees of manager or similar rank.

In addition, the judgement rejected the employer's appeal and upheld the right to have breakfast time counted as actual working time, also on the basis of agreements made prior to the introduction of the new timekeeping system.

The Supreme Court recalled that, in another ruling from 2023, 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 time-tracking tool. Caixabank created such a guide and took the view that, since the time record must be an accurate reflection of reality, the minutes following the official start time could no longer be considered as effectively worked.

However, the Supreme Court concluded that a person who arrives at work within 15 minutes of the start of the working day is entitled to be considered to have clocked in on time. It reached that conclusion after recalling that the time-tracking system cannot be used to introduce changes to working conditions or disregard any rights, in view of the company's 1991 agreement, which contains such a provision.