Black Friday has become one of the most important sales days for global trade, and a unique opportunity for employees to give visibility to your claims pressing with mobilizations on one of the days with the highest sales volume of the year.
On November 28, coinciding with the start of Black Friday, unions and representatives of the staff that make up the Inditex group throughout Europe, have called for different coordinated mobilizations in front of emblematic stores of the company in countries such as Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, Portugal, France, Italy and Spain. These actions aim to take advantage of the moment of maximum commercial visibility to put the distribution of profits and the recovery of an extraordinary bonus linked to the group’s economic results at the center of the debate.
Non-strike mobilizations. The unions and representatives of the Inditex European Works Council propose these mobilizations as another step after years of putting on the table the need for economic recognition for the collective efforts of the workforce. In their communications They point out that they have tried to sit down and negotiate with Inditex through other means, such as letters to management and requests at each meeting, but the company has not responded to their demands.
As confirmed by Rosa Galán, representative of CCOO at Inditex, it is important to point out that this is not a strike, but rather protest concentrations at the doors of the main stores in the center of large cities to give visibility to their demands that come “after exhausting other avenues” and as one more step in their efforts to sit down to negotiate.
They ask for the return of a bonus that disappeared. In Galán’s words, until 2020, Inditex employees throughout Europe received a variable bonus linked to the annual company profitsas a way of recognizing the contribution of the staff to the good financial results of the group.
This incentive was closely linked to strong sales campaigns, such as Black Friday for its great impactso that a part of the commercial success also reached directly into the pockets of those who run the stores and support the day-to-day running of the company. However, after the pandemic that bonus was eliminated and has not been implemented again until this year, when has done so by limiting its application to the managers who form your shareholders meeting.
A pat is not enough. Despite the good words and recognition that the board of directors dedicates to the group’s global workforce, the Inditex European Works Committee wants this recognition to materialize in the recovery of that bonus linked to profits in a context of good results financial like the current one.
“We are asking once again that a company that has enormous profits, which are the result of the work of its staff, distribute those profits fairly,” stated Galan to Reuters.
A context of growth. In the last exercises, the textile empire founded by Amancio Ortega has achieved record profits. In fiscal year 2024, closed on January 31, 2025, the brand recorded 5,866 million euros of net profit. This represents a growth of 9% compared to the previous year, thus adding its third consecutive year of historical results. The consolidated data of the first quarter of 2025 mark a continuing trend with an increase in net profit of 0.8%, up to 2,791 million euros.
Inditex has not responded to our requests for information, although declared to the EFE news agency that “for the moment” is not going to issue any comment on the union announcement.
Image | Unsplash (Praswin Prakashan)
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