GENEVA – The world’s largest apparel retailer, Inditex, says it will share best practices in labour rights after renewing a global framework agreement with IndustriALL. The pair, which have worked together since 2007, have established global union committee for the purpose. IndustriALL general secretary, Valter Sanches, and Inditex executive chairman, Pablo Isla, agreed the deal at the International Labour Organisation HQ in Geneva, Switzerland.
The new agreement contains provisions for a global union committee to exchange best practices in promoting freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. The committee will be made up of union representatives from Inditex’s six main production clusters around the world and representatives from IndustriALL Spanish affiliates Comisiones Obreras and UGT.
Valter Sanches, IndustriALL general secretary, said: “This agreement improves the preconditions for real change in working conditions, as an instrument for empowering our affiliated unions, providing them with a new tool to gain bargaining power.”
Through the global union committee, local union representatives will participate more directly in how the GFA is applied and have the chance to receive advice from union experts, as was stipulated in the expansion of the agreement agreed upon in 2016.
A key aspect of the agreement is the establishment of joint training policies and programmes that involve the workers at Inditex factories and suppliers, in order to make progress on the promotion of social dialogue and workplace equality, among other things.
“The agreement reinforces Inditex’ firm conviction that the joint work of the various garment industry stakeholders is key to spreading best social and environmental practices throughout the value chain,” said Pablo Isla.
