Inditex workers protest to demand job improvements after record profits

Inditex employees in Spain want the record profits achieved in the last two years to also be reflected in their payrolls and in their daily lives in the stores.

The CC OO and UGT unions have called this Friday for demonstrations in eight Spanish cities, in front of the company's stores, to demand improvements in working conditions, related among others to weekend releases, part-time work and seniority bonuses. .

“The general feeling of the entire workforce is that the company has to distribute the profits a little more,” says Mónica Doñoro Arenilla, a Zara Home employee and spokesperson for CC OO, along with a few dozen employees gathered in front of the Bershka store in the Gran Vía of Madrid.

Inditex recorded a record net result of 5,381 million euros in 2023, 30% more than the previous year.

“In its activity in Spain, it has exceeded 1,600 million in profits and 5,665 million in sales, which represents 200,000 euros in sales per person employed in stores,” according to calculations by CC OO, which understands that “this must revert to the workforce.” , who is the one who has made it possible.”

For this reason, this Friday rallies have been called in Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Seville, Málaga, Valencia, Bilbao, Las Palmas and Vigo, in which slogans have been seen such as “benefits also for those below”, “full day to pay the mortgage” and “Saturdays off are not impossible.”

These mobilizations occur a year after the company, owner of brands such as Zara, Massimo Dutti and Stradivarius, agreed with the workers, mostly women (75%), to a historic labor agreement for employees after a series of protests. organized by the staff.

For the first time, a minimum base salary of 18,000 euros was established for all employees, in all brands and in any province (until then, the agreement of each province prevailed).

This year there have been three meetings at the national level to continue negotiating improvements and another is planned for April.

“CC OO, the majority union at Inditex, has promoted the creation of various state negotiating tables to improve working conditions for the entire group's workforce in all territories,” the union explains.

“The lack of progress in the negotiations, despite the record profits that Inditex has obtained, has led CC OO to call for mobilizations,” they add.

Dividends have also been records: the main shareholder, Amancio Ortega (with 59% of the capital), will earn 2,846 million this year.

“We want to reduce unwanted part-time and free weekends,” explains Doñoro.

“Also measures such as employment bonuses,” adds the Inditex employee, who has been working at Zara Home for 15 years.

The last meeting with the company took place on March 19 and, as reported in UGT, “Inditex stated that it was willing to talk about two more points: encouraging work on Saturdays by linking it to sales and creating an incentive for shop assistants, also linked for sale".

The company submitted, according to this union, a specific proposal on employment bonuses (1,120 euros per year in 2024; 1,260 euros per year in 2025, and 1,400 euros in 2026) that would be charged after 25 years of seniority, absorbing all the concepts related to the seniority of the collective agreements (transport bonus, permanence bonus...) and people who exceed 48,000 gross euros per year would not receive it.

The improvements on the table are economic, but also social.

They include comprehensive defense of the health of the workforce, such as reducing workload and improvements in air conditioning.

They also refer to “group equality”, that is, some free weekends and better schedules;

and to maturity management, in which unions include early retirements, reductions in working hours, vacations or pension plans.

”It is essential to establish negotiation frameworks where the interests of the entire Inditex group staff in all territories are defended,” CC OO highlights.

At UGT, they add that their requests focus on the stores having “decent conditions”, since although last year's agreement represented a great improvement, there are still things to do, including an increase in seniority.

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