16 May, 2012
The 2007 Global Framework Agreement (GFA) between the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation (ITGLWF) and Spanish retailer Inditex Group was improved considerably on 4 May when the ITGLWF and Inditex signed a Protocol Agreement that monitors compliance and guarantees union intervention throughout Inditex’s supply chain.
The new accord, signed in Arteixo, Galicia, by ITGLWF General Secretary Klaus Priegnitz and Inditex Director of Corporate Social Responsibility Félix Poza, was done in coordination with Spanish union FITEQA-CC.OO, and serves as official guideposts to a 2010 “Protocol for Union Follow-Up” accord that provides the specifics for involvement in the GFA by ITGLWF affiliates.
Firstly, the addendum guarantees the ITGLWF and its affiliated unions access to all Inditex information on suppliers’ workplaces, including the annual update of company information on its production chain. And it commits Inditex to giving the unions the schedule of planned social audits and listing of suppliers to be inspected.
5 October 2007 Signing of ITGLWF-Inditex GFA
Inditex also formally recognises the vital role of union affiliates in monitoring compliance due to proximity and location of unions to textile, garment and footwear manufacturers, and grants unions the right to visit the sites of suppliers.
It lays out a process of correction actions when violations of the GFA are found, as well as establishing and implementing training programmes among suppliers’ managers, employees and others on the content of the GFA.
Isidor Boix of FITEQA-CC.OO, who facilitated the recent Protocol Agreement, reminded that the social responsibility process inside Inditex is constantly on-going with commitments that trade unionism, workers’ rights and fairness and dignity are upheld and respected.
Inditex uses some 5,000 suppliers throughout the world. The company operates some 5,500 fashion retail stores in 78 countries under the names Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Duti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Uterque and Zara Home.
The 2007 ITGLWF-Inditex GFA is testament to late ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney who crafted the agreement covering workers throughout the multinational’s supply chain after making interventions in factories that supply to the Spanish company when workers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Peru and Turkey were sacked for their trade union activity.