Spain: Inditex group to keep paying all employees in April despite closure of all its stores

Spanish clothing giant Inditex, which owns the retailer Zara, does not plan to make use of the extraordinary temporary lay-off measure (ERTE) that would allow it to claim special aid from the Spanish state, as it deals with the decline in business volumes amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The group’s management has announced to employee representatives that, during the month of April, it alone will bear the cost of closing its 1,580 stores in Spain and the halt to sales. It will therefore pay all salaries during this period without recourse to state aid. As such, Inditex renews the commitment it made in March, after the state of alert was declared and all shops had to close their doors (see article n°11740). The management, which had prepared to activate an ERTE measure from 13 April for all shop staff, has ultimately decided against doing so, for the time being. It states that after 30 April, “depending on how the health emergency evolves and the state of store activity, the company will be able to study the possibility of applying some of the tools proposed by the government to preserve jobs”. The CCOO trade union welcomes the decision of the group, “which has listened to the demands made by the CCOO since the beginning of the health crisis to the big names in the textiles industry”. The union had appealed to the group’s social responsibility by asking it not to use public resources and called on the other major fashion retailers to do the same.