Mass closures of Zara stores caused outrage among retailers

Despite an earlier agreement to create new jobs, Inditex announced its intention to close more than 1,200 stores worldwide.

The world's largest apparel retailer, best known as the Zara brand owner, is closing smaller outlets while expanding flagship stores. A total of 1,200 outlets are scheduled to close by the end of 2021. Seven hundred are in Europe, 100 in North and South America, plus 400 in other countries worldwide. The company planned to begin the process in the home country of the brand - Spain.

The idea of mass closures has already caused anger among Spanish trade unions. An earlier agreement was signed with Inditex, under which the company is obliged to provide dismissed workers with new jobs. In this case, it is impossible since many of the closures are located in rural areas, where it is not easy to find a replacement. According to the agreement, the new workplace must be located no further than 25 km from the old one.

An analysis of the vacancies offered by Inditex showed that in 40% of cases, the new jobs provided were at a considerable distance from the old ones or in another province, wrote Reuters. And the position itself often does not correspond to the employee's length of service. For example, a person who works 40 hours a week may be offered a job for 12 hours, not corresponding to their professional experience. The report states that one in four workers who have been offered new positions in Spain quit.

Inditex denies such accusations, claiming that it respects all contract clauses. According to the spokesman, for every job lost, there are usually several new ones offered. In 75% of cases, workers affected by the closure of a previous job have found a new occupation.

Photo credit: depositphotos.com.

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