Alex Trelinski
SPAIN’S leading fashion group Inditex has struck a deal with two unions which will see salaries of store workers rise by an average of 20%.
The UGT and CCOO unions say the inflation-busting agreement also includes a levelling-up of salaries that vary between different regions of the country, meaning that some staff will get a 40% pay hike.
The unions add that increases will be backdated to January 1, but there has been no statement so far from Inditex.
Inditex owns stores under brand names like Zara, Massimo Dutti, Oysho and Stradivarius and employs 46,000 people in Spain.
The UGT union described the agreement as ‘historic’.
“This deal solves some of the injustices in the Inditex group and begins a path of achieving standardisation across the different brands and regions”, it said in a statement.
The UGT and CCOO have been in negotiations with Inditex to extend the pay rises and benefits to all shop staff after workers in Inditex’s home area of A Coruña got a 25% pay increase in December.
The deal means that Inditex will pay a minimum wage of €1,500 a month to shop assistants and as much as €2,041, depending on seniority.
The figures do not include commissions, incentive schemes, and working night shifts.
Higher rates will also be paid for working on Sundays and bank holidays.
The unions say that Inditex also agreed to continue increasing salaries with inflation over the next three years.
In November, Inditex agreed with the two unions pay a one-off bonus of €1,000 in February for all full-time shop assistants and has agreed to pay the same bonus next year.
A third union, the CGT, has not taken part in the negotiations and had called for its Inditex members to go on strike this Saturday.
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