THE DARK SIDE OF INDITEX

In this article we will get into the ‘dark side’ of Inditex and which practices they proclaim, even though sometimes their words do not reflect the practices they actually carry out.

Inditex is one of the world’s largest fashion retailers, created by Amancio Ortega in his home town in La Coruña, Spain, and it has become an absolute empire, establishing stores in five continents, it has a total of 7.337 stores. Inditex owns eight different brands (Zara, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Oysho, Uterqüe and Zara Home) which sell different products in order to answer its customers’ demands according to their fashion style and lifestyle.

If we take a look at Inditex’s 2019 Annual Report, they claim their aim regarding their supply chain is to assure a responsible model in terms of production as well as consumption through the implementation of standards; traceability and transparency policies; and responsible buying practices. According to this, in its website, they claim: “Inditex strives to make sure the most stringent labour standards are upheld and safeguarded in the factories we work with in 44 different markets with different sociocultural realities”. Therefore, they have created the ‘Compliance Programme’ in order to promote Human Rights in their factories. However, as Carmen Expósito from the textile industry sector of CCOO in Spain says: “The company is unable to prevent subcontractors from violating the ethics code” because it is just a way to protect themselves from conditions in the factories where their clothes are made.

But, Inditex has been involved in different slavery and labour scandals which may disturb what the fashion retailer proclaims in its Annual Reports. In 2011, according to Forbes, Zara (the main brand of the fashion retailer) was accused of allegedly accepting slave - labour working conditions supplanted by more than 30 of its outsourced plants established in Brazil after the release of the investigate TV show called ‘A Liga’, where audience could see a factory where workers were producing Inditex’s garments under slave-like conditions.

According to BBC News, in 2017, Zara shoppers in Istanbul, Turkey, found labour complaints inside the clothes. Garment workers from local company Bravo Tekstil, who produce clothes for Zara and other big international brands like Mango, used the brand’s clothes to complain about their manufacturer going bankrupt overnight in July 2016 and they were not paid during the closing of the factory. With these new tags, where workers wrote their complaints and stories, they were asking Zara to compensate their losses and pay them months of back wages and severance. Asalettin Arslanoglu, a worker from DISK Tekstil said: “Zara announces to the whole world that they are responsible for each worker producing their goods. The fund they proposed only covers a quarter of the workers’ losses”.

Although Inditex has faced several allegations about horrible working conditions in its factories, and even we, as consumers, have been informed about this type of situation, which is the day-to-day life of the workers of big western clothing brands, we continue to allow these practices through our purchases.