this is the first Inditex Equality Plan

The group signs with CC OO and UGT a document of more than 100 measures that advances in the equalization of the chains

After more than six months of negotiation, Inditex yesterday signed the first Equality Plan with the main unions, another step forward in the equalization of all the chains of the Galician textile giant. The agreement encompasses 20 companies and a workforce of 30,000 people in Spain. Like the agreement on wages and benefits signed last February, the workers’ representatives describe the new agreement as “historic”, “which, for CC OO, forms part of the fundamental advances in the working conditions of a business group and a sector with a high rate of female workers on the payroll”. “Collective bargaining and the implementation of Equality Plans are key to reducing the gender gap, as well as partiality and job insecurity”, points out the central, which brings success to the “collective effort of the entire workforce”. They fought for better conditions, knowing that there is still a long way to go”.

The first Inditex Equality Plan adds more than a hundred measures that come into force tomorrow, April 1, and will be in force for the next four years under the joint monitoring of a Joint Commission between the signatory unions and the company chaired by Marta Ortega.

The main points of a pioneering plan

1. How does it affect the process of access to the company and the selection of personnel? In the new openings, they will have priority current employees. Vacancies will be updated at all times and the information will be available to workers. A form will be created expressly to request an extension of the working day.
2. A boost to training. It will be done during business hours and with the group expensesincluding professional recycling actions for all those people who have been on long leave of absence.
3. Changes in the work organization. Working day daily minimum continued for 4 hours. According to the chain and province format, an annual work calendar is established with reconciliation in mind, which will be communicated to employees two months before its implementation. The agreement is committed to the elimination of split shifts and the last half hour for collection in stores that close at 10:00 p.m. The breaks between days will be 14 minutes in the 4-hour ones, 20 minutes in the 6-hour ones and 30 minutes in the rest. Before the end of the year, the company will implement “a guaranteed minimum framework of weekly rest”, introducing “a minimum of quality weekends” in the year; and a minimum number of hours per week for permanent part-time contracts.
4. Measures for family reconciliation. The common-law couples they will have the same right. Digital disconnection is collected, “avoiding the sending of emails, messages or WhatsApp” after the end of the day. Not answering them “will not cause any harm.” The schedule and the day may be adapted to attend official studies. For care of relatives and children, the leave is extended to 5 years. A paid leave of up to 8 hours a year is introduced for workers undergoing treatment with assisted reproduction techniques and 16 hours for adoption procedures. Health care, both for the worker himself and as companions, will be 20 hours a year and an additional 10 hours in the case of minors with disabilities or single-parent families. Inditex undertakes to facilitate the change of shift or geographical mobility in situations related to visitation with children. There will be leave of absence of up to one year due to death, accident or long-term illness of children, spouse or common-law partner. Single-parent families will have preference in the choice of vacations. The breastfeeding period is extended until the child reaches one year of age and paid leave is collected from the couple for accompaniment in preparation for childbirth, among other measures.
5. Occupational health care. In the case of pregnant women, with a change of position, if possible. Where they do not exist, rest spaces with adequate furniture will be set up for them, who may request a paid leave of up to two weeks if there is a risk in the pregnancy while they wait for the discharge from the mutual. They will be offered free on Black Friday and the first day of sales.
6. Measures against gender violence. Once there is official confirmation of a abuse case, if geographical mobility is necessary, Inditex will assume the travel expenses, with paid leave also for the search for residence. Absences or lack of punctuality caused by the physical or psychological situation derived from gender violence will not count as absenteeism. They will be provided with all the improvement measures included in previous chapters and a grant of up to 600 euros for psychological treatment.