According to El Español (Alicante), an employer in Spain can require an employee to make up the time spent on smoking breaks by extending the working day by those minutes. The paper points to recent case law (jurisprudencia): time spent smoking does not count as effective working time. It is classed as a private break (interrupción privada), unlike breaks for physiological needs, such as going to the toilet. The paper does not name a specific court ruling.
The paper calls compulsory working-time recording (registro de jornada) the turning point. Through a clock-in system (fichaje), employees log every entry, exit and break. In the paper's example, an employee who steps out several times in a day and loses 20 minutes in total can be asked to extend the working day by 20 minutes. A refusal could be treated as a breach of the work schedule and lead to disciplinary action. Employment lawyer Juanma Lorente said in a social media video that a company can in effect put a stopwatch on an employee's exits and returns, and that the time must be worked off by the end of the day.
Under article 34.4 of the Workers' Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores), anyone working a continuous day of more than six hours is entitled to a break of at least 15 minutes. If a sector collective agreement (convenio colectivo) expressly recognises that break as effective working time, it can be spent smoking with nothing to make up. Absences beyond the agreed limit, and absences under contracts where the break is not recognised as paid, must be worked off or deducted from pay (nómina).
The paper says the aim is that smokers do not work fewer hours than non-smokers, and that the employer does not pay for that time. It does not say which agreements recognise smoking breaks as working time, how deductions are made or whether an employee can challenge them. The headline's "Ya es oficial" ("It's now official") is not backed in the text by a law, order or ministry statement, and the report appears to describe current practice rather than a new rule.
