Staff of leading global retailer Inditex says they are being forced out as the company rolls out its plan to shut down around 1,200 stores worldwide – this is despite the company’s agreement with Spanish unions to protect jobs.
Inditex, the world’s biggest clothing retailer based in Spain, is the owner of fast-fashion brand Zara.
The company is closing smaller outlets while expanding flagship stores and the Spanish closures are the first of up to 700 expected this year in Europe, as well as 100 in the Americas and 400 elsewhere.
As per Reuters’ report, under an agreement signed recently with two Spanish unions, Inditex aims to provide all the affected staff with new vacancies that match their old contracts and seniority within 25 km of where they used to work.
However, in an internal report, the UGT, the second-biggest Spanish union within Inditex, analysed vacancies offered by Inditex and found that 40 per cent of the new positions were outside the province where the worker in question had worked, and in some cases on the other side of the country. The report said one in four workers offered new positions in Spain have so far quit.
UGT signed the agreement with the company along with the leading syndicate CCOO.
An Inditex spokesman said that it was complying with the union agreement and that relocations respected, “all its principles, wording and spirit, which is to prioritise the maintenance of jobs.”
The number of vacancies offered so far is equivalent to 126 per cent of jobs affected, the spokesman added. He also said that 75 per cent of workers had been successfully relocated to date.
As per CCOO, Inditex has so far announced the closure of 114 stores in Spain impacting 986 jobs, with unions expecting another 186 outlets to close down this year.
