Comment from Gemma McCall, CEO of Culture Shift:
“McDonald’s workers have said they are still facing sexual abuse and harassment, a year after their boss promised to clean up behaviour at the fast-food chain. And whilst a spokesperson said the company had undertaken ‘extensive work’ over the past year to ensure it has industry-leading practices in place to keep its workers safe, this clearly hasn’t gone far enough to earn trust.
Trust is easily lost, and it’s incredibly hard to earn back. And it does need to be earned. You can see that the trust in speaking up at the company is low, as there have been more than double the number of reports to the EHRC than McDonald’s has received itself. It’s positive McDonald’s has started to implement training, but that really is just the very start of the basics.
People at the chain are currently scared of the consequences of speaking up, and feel their concerns won’t be taken seriously or even worse covered up. If McDonald’s are seriously committed to changing culture and damaging behaviours that seem to be endemic throughout their stores, they need to win that trust back by being super-transparent about what reports they have received.
They need to accompany that with information about what informal and disciplinary action has been taken and publish an action plan alongside this to ensure they hold themselves to account and that this doesn’t happen again.
Having a digital platform for reporting of harassment of any nature and a case management system will reduce the risk of bias or piecemeal investigations by creating a clear and auditable process. While McDonald’s states that ‘extensive work’ has taken place over the past year to tackle sexual harassment claims, they must pair this with leadership accountability, public commitment to addressing findings, and regular updates on progress. This approach signals that claims are taken seriously, and helps organisations rebuild credibility with their workforce and the company’s public image.”
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