According to a new BBC report, more than 100 current McDonald’s employees have so far come forward with sexual abuse allegations concerning other colleagues.
We have previously written about allegations at one of the biggest retail food employers in the world – but this time the focus has been extended beyond individual cases, as the Equality and Human Rights Commission is set to open a new email hotline.
The BBC investigation spanned five months, covered over 100 alleged claims, and broke it down to 31 sexual assault allegations and 78 sexual harassment claims respectively. Eighteen additional racism allegations were made, as well as six reports of homopobia.
The claims
The BBC has heard a number claims regarding allegations from McDonald’s employees, including:
- 17-year-old current employee in Cheshire alleges that a colleague used racial slurs, asked to show her his penis, and ‘said he wanted to make a “black and white” baby with her’.
- A former worker – 17 at the time – alleged being choked and grabbed by the bottom by a senior manager in Plymouth, and was also reportedly sent explicit images by a shift manager.
- 16-year-old male worker in Hampshire was suggestively offered to perform sexual acts in exchange for vapes.
- A manager in Cheshire preying on 16-year-old female new starters in Cheshire, pressuring them for sex.
- An Aberdeen worker was called a racial slur and subjected to racist jokes.
- An Essex employee suffered antisemitic abuse.
- A current employee in Oxfordshire, originally from India, says colleagues spoke in “gibberish” to imitate her and called a Pakistani colleague a terrorist.
- Male managers in a Welsh branch joking about cash bets on who could sleep with new starters first.
- A gonorrhoea outbreak at a Northern Ireland branch, where staff relationships were common.
Reports of sexual relationships between managers and junior members of staff also exist, which is against McDonald’s company policy.
“There is a saying at McDonald’s, “tits on tills” – boys in the kitchen, girls on the counter. The idea is to put attractive people at the front,” stated Lucy, 22, who worked in Norwich. “It’s the expectation that if you work at McDonald’s, you will be harassed,” added Emily, 22, who worked in Brighton.
Complaints ignored
The BBC couldn’t confirm that everyone it had spoken to had made a formal complaint, but a number of them did say that they had, only for it to be disregarded.
17-year-old Chinyere in Cheshire was sexually and racially harassed by an older male colleague. Her complaint was raised with a female member of the team responsible for staff wellbeing, who simply told her to get back to work.
The harassment continued for months, when her stepfather escalated it to the franchise owners, corporate headquarters and the police, which resulted in the offending member of staff being fired. Chinyere believes that her stepfather’s intervention is the only reason that action was taken.
A worker in Birmingham, 19, was forced to quit her job due to her complaint being ignored, despite having video evidence of the sexual harassment taking place, as well as a bruise on her skin from where she was smacked. The offending colleague remained on her shift.
These complaints continue, with some employees saying that they didn’t complain for fear of losing potential slots on rotas.
McDonald’s responds
Despite prior promises to its “zero tolerance” commitment to such serious complaints and stating that training will be provided, staff have told the BBC that such interventions are not being taken seriously.
The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) general secretary, Sarah Woolley, has condemned the findings as “shocking”.
Chief Executive of McDonald’s UK & Ireland, Alistair Macrow, has responded to the claims:
“Every one of the 177,000 employees in McDonald’s UK deserves to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace. There are clearly instances where we have fallen short and for that we deeply apologise”.
“We will investigate all allegations brought to us, and all proven breaches of our code of conduct will be met with the most severe measures we can legally impose, up to and including dismissal.”
He also added that more than 2000 managers had completed full awareness training, and added that most teams were now working with these new protections with the aim of creating “a safe and respectful workplace”.
We await further potential developments in this story.
Further reading
Bullying and harassment at work – Oakwood Solicitors
WHAT TO DO NEXT
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Jessica Rowson started as a Paralegal at Oakwood Solicitors in July 2010, qualifying as a Solicitor in September 2013. Following her qualifying as a Solicitor, Jessica established a niche department …
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