A UK McDonald’s boss appeared before MPs on Tuesday after new sexual harassment allegations emerged. This is despite McDonald’s attempts to eradicate its toxic culture.
Today (7 January), Alistair Macrow will be answering questions from the Business and Trade Select Committee on employment rights, as the BBC has published more allegations regarding sexual harassment and bullying.
McDonald’s Restaurants in February 2023 signed a Section 23 agreement, with the government’s equal rights watchdog to respond to concerns regarding the handling of harassment claims made by UK employees.
In a BBC statement, the Equality and Human Rights Commission stated: “We actively work with McDonald’s in order to update our current legal agreement in light serious allegations raised in our work with the Company and in the BBC investigation.”
A 17-year old former employee who was on a zero hours contract told the BBC that a 30-year-old manager asked her to have sex for additional shifts.
One man described how he was subjected by his colleagues to “degrading, humiliating homophobic abuse” at a McDonald’s restaurant in Scotland. He said that when he complained to a manager about the issue, they told him it was just “banter”.
Thirdly, he shared that he left his job as a McDonald’s employee in the Midlands because of a “toxic” working environment. He said he had been bullied due to a learning disorder and an eye problem. He claimed that staff and managers were racist towards other employees and that some managers “tried to touch up other staff”.
Liam Byrne described the situation as “appalling”. He told BBC: “There’s a pattern of abuse that indicates that McDonald’s is now a hotbed for harassment, and that’s extremely serious.” When the McDonald’s boss came to us last year, he said that he’d root out this issue and it’s clear that he’s not succeeded.
McDonald’s hired PwC in 2023 to audit their restaurants and assess employee wellbeing. One former senior manager who was in his early twenties and ran a restaurant south of England claimed that the inspections had been “rigged”, so only the best employees would be interviewed.
McDonald’s spokeswoman told BBC that PwC’s visits to the restaurants are “crucial” for evaluating each restaurant against certain criteria and making sure standards are met.
They said that “in the rare instances where we did not meet our expectations, we took prompt corrective actions.” PwC constantly reviews the assessment procedures and refined them early on in the program to ensure that the employee interviews, which are part of the evaluation process, are chosen randomly by independent assessors. This further safeguards the integrity of this process.
Separately Leigh Day, a law firm, said that it had been instructed to take legal action by staff members aged between 19 and 30 years old against McDonald’s. Around 450 McDonald’s branches were implicated in the claims of harassment.
Paula Lee is a partner in Leigh Day’s employment team. She said: “Since BBC’s original investigation, over 700 young McDonald’s workers from all across the country contacted Leigh Day to join the claim. As more crew members become aware of their rights, the number of claims continues to increase.
The legal action is open to any current McDonald’s employees under the age of 20. The claim is open to anyone who has experienced harassment directly or indirectly and left McDonald’s in the last few months of 2019.
Leigh Day is of the opinion that claimants may be entitled to compensation if their claim is successful. The firm acts on a no-win, zero-fee basis.
McDonald’s spokesperson stated: “Ensuring that the 168,000 workers in McDonald’s Restaurants are safe is our most important responsibility, both for us and for our franchisees. We have undertaken extensive research over the past year to ensure we’ve put in place industry-leading practices to support this priority.
“Any incident of misconduct or harassment is unacceptable, and will be investigated thoroughly and promptly.”
McDonald’s has announced that it has launched a company-wide program to enhance safety, raise awareness, and improve training. It has also introduced new ways for employees who wish to express themselves confidentially.
An anonymous survey of franchisees revealed that 92% are confident in voicing their concerns and 93% think management will take action.
The company stated that it would “challenge and confront” any behavior that fell below the standards.
In 2021, McDonald’s employees walked in 12 US cities to protest the way that the restaurant chain had handled sexual harassment allegations, especially in franchised outlets.
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