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Module 3 of 5 · Working time records · Block 3

Retention, access and data protection

The record is personal data about the worker and at the same time evidence the employer may need. Both at once shape how it is stored and who gets to see it.

Content reviewed on

Four years

Article 34.9 requires records to be kept for four years and made available to workers, their legal representatives and the Labour and Social Security Inspectorate.

Four years matches the limitation period for infringements in the social order, which is where the figure comes from.

Who can access it

The worker to their own record, employee representatives to the collective one, and the Inspectorate on request. A line manager should only see their own team, and for a specific purpose.

Each consultation is best logged: it is how you answer if somebody asks who has been looking at what.

Tamper evidence

The record must be reliable. That does not mean errors cannot be corrected, but the correction has to leave a trail: previous value, new value, author and reason.

A system that lets the past be rewritten silently is worth less as evidence than a signed sheet of paper.

What an auditor usually asks for

  • Retention guaranteed for four years
  • Worker access to their own record without having to ask
  • Audit log of consultations and corrections
  • Legal basis and retention periods documented in the record of processing activities

How the record is protected in Kimobox

  1. 1Check that the configured retention period covers the four years.
  2. 2Give the worker permanent access to their own history from the portal.
  3. 3Periodically review who has permission to consult other people's records.

Letting the worker check their own record whenever they want removes half the disputes before they become disputes.

See how data is handled in Kimobox

Where each figure comes from

References to the official text in force. If a standard is revised, this page is updated and the review date says so.

  1. Real Decreto-ley 8/2019 on urgent social protection measures and working time BOE-A-2019-3481 · 12/03/2019
  2. Estatuto de los Trabajadores (Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015), arts. 34, 35 and 37 BOE-A-2015-11430 · —
  3. Royal Legislative Decree 5/2000 (LISOS), arts. 7.5 and 40.1.b) BOE-A-2000-15060 · —
  4. Law 10/2021 of 9 July on remote working BOE-A-2021-11472 · 10/07/2021