The European Union's top court has ruled that employers in the 28-nation bloc must set up a system to measure the time worked every day by each worker to ensure that labour laws are complied with.

Tuesday's ruling from the European Court of Justice stems from a case in which labour union Comisiones Obreras sought to have a Spanish subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Bank obliged to set up such a system.

The bank contended that Spanish law has a less exacting requirement for overtime hours to be recorded each month.

The ECJ said member countries "must require employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of time worked each day by each worker to be measured." Countries can make their own specific arrangements.