Fashion giant Inditex and the IndustriALL Global Union federation have signed an agreement to protect the rights of workers in the company’s supply chain. Inditex Executive Chairman, Pablo Isla, and the General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, Valter Sanches, signed the deal at the head offices of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland.
It extends the Global Framework Agreement the two organisations entered into back in 2007 by setting up a ‘Global Union Committee’, with the aim of sharing and fostering best practices across the industry. The committee will be populated by union representatives from Inditex’s six main production clusters and representatives from the leading Spanish trade unions, ‘Comisiones Obreras’ (Workers’ commissions) and UGT.
Inditex, which owns brands including Zara, is believed to be the first fashion company in the world to set up a body of this kind. The company has committed to working with local and international unions to reinforce the company’s supply chain workers’ labour rights, with a focus on the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining.
Describing the agreement as an “additional driving force for production chain transformation,” Isla added. “This new milestone represents another boost to our total commitment to people and sustainability, an effort we know is capable of having a tremendously transformational knock-on effect on the overall garment industry.”
He added that it also “reinforces our 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”.
IndustriALL, which represents over 50 mn workers affiliated with nearly 600 unions around the world, says it has been working with Inditext to promote and protect human rights since entering into the collaboration agreement.
Sanches commented: “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.” The signing ceremony for the agreement was also attended by the ILO’s Deputy Director-General for field operations and partnerships, Moussa Oumarou.
