Inditex develops various initiatives aiming to promote the integration into the labour market of people with special needs or in a vulnerable situation. The Group also ensures that all its employees with social concerns can find in Inditex a driving force to get their social projects off the ground.

Salta and Jeunes projects

Salta and Jeunes are two projects with one objective: to promote the integration into the labour market of groups with special needs or in a vulnerable situation.

The Jeunes project was created in France in 2008 and aims to promote the employment of disadvantaged young people in the Paris metropolitan area. Shortly afterwards and with the same aims, the Salta project was launched in Spain. This social initiative offers training opportunities and integration in the world of work for young people at risk of social exclusion.

Both projects offer participants a comprehensive programme of theoretical and practical training, achieving the integration into employment of more than 300 people in France and Spain since 2008.

These initiatives were also launched in the company’s logistics centres during 2014, which led to 47 people being incorporated in stores and logistics centres during the last year alone.

Based on these excellent results and the positive reception that such initiatives have received from the Group’s employees, in 2015 this initiative will be extended to 10 countries under the title Salta Mundo, thereby increasing the numbers of people in a situation of exclusion that can directly benefit from the programme.

Inpulse and Likes

Since 2011, Inditex employees have at their disposal an internal corporate social platform called Inpulse. It provides them with detailed information on the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives being implemented by the company, as well as the different types of activities they can take part in directly as ambassadors and volunteers. Inpulse was created thanks to social initiatives launched by the Group’s employees, who have made it possible for the whole company to get involved in social and humanitarian projects.

As part of the Inpulse project, in 2013 the project Likes was launched in order for small-scale solidarity actions supported by Inditex employees to receive Inditex funding in collaboration with non-profit organizations, thereby combating certain social and environmental issues. In order for these ideas to achieve the funding and volunteers requested, it is crucial that proposals receive the support and collaboration of other employees, who can cast votes.

Likes is the sum of everyone’s efforts, from those who propose an idea to those who support it with their votes or sign up as volunteers to make these proposals a reality. In 2014, Likes provided funding for 35 projects that were made possible thanks to employees who, with the assistance of more than 1,000 working hours invested in volunteer work, have managed to help more than 3,250 people.

For&from Project

For&from, the social and employment integration project for people with disabilities promoted since 2002 by Inditex, achieved a new milestone in 2014, with the opening of a new store managed by people with severe mental disorders.

The new store, located in Llagostera, Girona, belongs to Massimo Dutti and sells products from previous seasons at reduced prices. Workers diagnosed with severe mental disorders receive ongoing training and psychological and professional support, both from technicians working for Moltacte, a non-profit social cooperative specializing in the development of social and employment rehabilitation programmes for people with severe mental disorders such as the teams working in the Massimo Dutti store.

With the inauguration of this store, Inditex’s For&from social and employment integration programme now offers more than 60 jobs for people with some kind of physical or mental disability in eight stores over the Group’s various brands, all of which are managed by social organizations specializing in the integration of people with some kind of mental or physical disability, such as Moltacte, Fundació Molí d’en Puigvert and the Galician Confederation of People with Disabilities, COGAMI.

Since its creation in 2002, the For&from programme has not only demonstrated its capacity to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities but also provides an important source of funding for collaborating social organizations. With a total investment of more than €2 million since the project began, the For&from network of stores boasts annual sales of €4 million.

For&from store data 2014