Workers at Inditex's Zaragoza logistics center will receive a 12% salary increase

Around 1,800 workers at one of Zara owner Inditex's main logistics centers in Spain will receive a direct pay rise totaling 12% over the next three years plus additional compensation under a preliminary agreement unions said have reached with the company.

Inditex declined to comment on the preliminary agreement reached on Wednesday.

The Zaragoza logistics centre, which manages Zara women's clothing, is an increasingly important part of Inditex's supply strategy, as shipping companies are forced to find alternative routes to Europe avoiding the Red Sea, being Spanish ports a gateway for shipments through the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.

Logistics workers at the center had demanded better benefits under the new deal, as Inditex, which reported a nearly 11% rise in profits earlier this month, increased its workload.

“We are working at 100% of our capacity… the workload is increasing and that is in all shifts,” said José Antonio Villanueva, leader of UGT, one of the largest union groups in Spain and one of the four that They agreed to increase the annual salary of a warehouse worker to approximately 34,400 euros ($37,296).

That includes an additional 4% increase to compensate for high inflation between 2021 and 2023 and a 20% increase in some bonuses for additional shifts, the unions said in a statement.

Inditex agreed early last year to increase the average salaries of its store workers in Spain by 20% and increase them further in line with inflation over the next three years.

CEO Óscar García said last week that the company still plans to invest around 900 million euros a year until 2025 in the expansion of its European centers, including a second Zara center near Zaragoza.
Some union leaders claimed that logistics workers in Zaragoza are paid less than their counterparts at Inditex's headquarters in Arteixo, where around 1,300 workers recently protested a reduction in their workload since December before reaching an agreement with the company. to dedicate 75% of its functions to main tasks until 2030.