McDonald’s workers are being subjected to widespread sexual assault
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A BBC report on McDonald’s abuse has exposed a “toxic culture” of sexual assault and harassment of staff at its restaurants in the UK.
Workers are being groped and harassed almost routinely, with McDonald’s accepting that the company has “fallen short” and apologising.
The BBC cites numerous incidents at outlets nationwide, some involving females as young as 17. One employee told how females working for McDonald’s expect to be subjected to assault. Another told the BBC that she was repeatedly groped and went to work in fear. She resigned as a direct result, referring to the “toxic work environment” in her resignation email.
McDonald’s is one of the nation’s biggest employers. It employs more than 170,000 people in its 1,450 restaurants, with three quarters of those being aged between 16 and 25.
However, most McDonald’s workers are not directly employed by the company but by individual operators who are licensed to run the outlets.
The report criticises McDonalds for failing to act on formal complaints, with some managers turning a blind eye to what is going on. In some instances managers who have been the subject of complaints themselves have merely been transferred from one McDonald’s outlet to another, instead of being fired. In addition many employees feel unable to complain as they fear they will lose their job.
Although McDonald’s have pledged “zero tolerance” on sexual harassment and agreed to deliver training for employees, staff feel that the training is not being taken seriously by managers.
In the US McDonald’s is facing multi-million dollar lawsuits from employees alleging sexual harassment. Here in the UK, employees who have been the victim of McDonald’s abuse may also seek compensation for sexual assault, and anyone who wants to know where they stand legally can contact our free helpline for guidance.
You can call our free helpline in confidence on 0333 888 0445 or, if you prefer, you can send an email to us at [email protected] with brief details of your case and we will get straight back to you.