More than 700 junior McDonald’s workers in the UK have joined legal action against the fast-food chain, alleging discrimination, homophobia, and sexual harassment. This follows a BBC investigation in 2023 that revealed widespread sexual abuse and harassment at McDonald’s restaurants. Despite signing a legal agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to improve the way it handled such allegations, workers continue to complain they are being harassed.
Allegations include:
- being bullied for having a disability
- being exposed to racist and homophobic comments from managers
- being pestered for sex
- being asked inappropriate sexual questions.
Since the BBC’s original investigation, the EHRC has received complaints about 300 reported incidents of harassment, prompting it to escalate its intervention and update its legal agreement with McDonald’s.
In response to the allegations, McDonald’s has stated that ensuring the safety of its 168,000 workers is its top priority. It also states that it has taken steps to deal with the problem, including hiring a head of safeguarding and rolling out company-wide programmes to improve safeguarding, awareness, and training. These include a digital whistleblowing channel and a dedicated investigations unit.
Source: McDonald’s sacked 29 people after sexual harassment allegations, MPs told | The Guardian
We wrote about protecting your workers from sexual harassment in our November 2024 newsletter: Preventing sexual harassment at work: checklist and action plan for employers – Watershed
