McDonald’s is facing fresh claims of widespread harassment across its UK branches, as 700 people join a class action suit.
Staff claim they are still being sexually abused and harassed – a year after the fast food chain promised to clean up its act. And the company’s UK boss was summoned to appear before MPs today, to be grilled over the sex abuse claims.
The BBC reports that a 19-year-old employee saidmanagers would “touch up” other members of staff, leaving colleagues scared of going into work. And a Scottish branch worker said he has been repeatedly subjected to “degrading and humiliating” verbal abuse by his colleagues at a McDonald’s branch in the southwest.
The UK equality watchdog has heard 300 reported incidents of harassment, following an initial investigation into McDonald’s by the BBC, and the body now plans to intervene again. A McDonald’s 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.
Claims made against the company include a worker quitting her job in the West Midlands at the end of 2023, after she says managers inappropriately touched her and customers sexually harassed her. She said that she raised it and was told to “suck it up”. A 16-year-old, who still works at a branch in the West Midlands, claims he was bullied, shouted at and sworn at by managers.
And a former female worker, 20, said she left her McDonald’s branch in the East of England in August, after a male manager sent her topless pictures. These claims all relate to events after November 2023, when the boss of McDonald’s UK, Alistair Macrow first appeared in front of parliament’s Business and Trade Committee.
Mr Macrow told MPs then that the firm was taking action to improve working conditions, after the BBC uncovered widespread concerns over the treatment of staff. However, one current and two former workers from different parts of the country, claim that the restaurant audits that were promised, were stage-managed by the branches.
More than 700 current and former junior employees are now taking legal action against the firm, accusing it of failing to protect them. A teenager said he quit his McDonald’s branch in the Midlands last year because of what he calls a “toxic” work environment. He said he was bullied for having a learning disability and an eye condition.
He explained: “It was stuff you noticed, managers and staff being racist to other staff. Managers trying to touch other staff up. He said some staff members felt scared to go into work, because they feared something “horrible” happening, and said the work culture had not changed by the time he left in May.
Another 19-year-old worker said he has been repeatedly subjected to “degrading and humiliating” verbal abuse by his colleagues at a McDonald’s branch in southwest Scotland. He said: “It’s just homophobic slurs a lot, sometimes to my face, sometimes behind my back.” When he reported the problem to a senior manager, he says he was told it was “just a bit of banter”.
He previously worked in other fast-food restaurants where he said homophobia was taken more seriously, explaining: “It just seems like McDonald’s don’t care as much”. A woman who worked at a branch in the Midlands until May 2023, says a shift manager asked her for sex in return for extra shifts, which she refused. She was 17, he was in his 30s.
She said: “You don’t expect that to happen. It was totally inappropriate.” Like most McDonald’s workers, Claire was employed on a zero-hours contract McDonald’s outlets are run as franchises, so local managers are responsible for employing the staff for their restaurants. Across the UK, 89% of their workers are on zero-hours contracts.
McDonald’s says workers can choose to switch to minimum guaranteed hours. But we have spoken to 50 workers across the country who say they were not given that choice. Some workers told the BBC the insecure hours leads to an imbalance of power. Others, however, said zero-hours contracts worked well for them.
Claire says she felt “dependent” on her managers for work. “I was always asking for more shifts, as I needed more money,” she said. A McDonald’s spokesperson said that in 2018, it offered all employees the choice of a flexible or guaranteed hours contract, and that every staff room should still display information on how to request one.
“Additionally, after four weeks in role, every new employee has a formal conversation with management – in which managers check that employees are aware of the option of a guaranteed hours contract,” the company said. The company said it did not recognise the incident where a manager asked for sex in return for shifts.
“If provided with sufficient information we would ensure a full investigation is carried out, and appropriate action taken if necessary,” the company said. Liam Byrne, chair of the Business Select Committee, which will question Mr Macrow later on Tuesday, told the BBC the situation was “appalling”.
“There is a clear pattern of abuse here that suggests that McDonald’s has become a hotbed of harassment and it’s incredibly serious,” he said. “And when the boss of McDonald’s came before us last year he promised that he would root out this problem and it’s quite clear that he’s failed.”
Most McDonald’s staff are aged between 16 and 25. For many, it is their first job. Even senior managers are often young. Another worker was in charge of a store in the South of England by his early twenties. He left last February. He said: “If I had a sister, or if I had a daughter, I wouldn’t want them working in McDonald’s.”
When the McDonald’s boss spoke to MPs in 2023 he said the company had stopped a practice of moving managers around so they could avoid disciplinary action. But the worker said days after Mr Macrow gave evidence, a manager was moved to his store to avoid being disciplined, following allegations they’d sent sexually explicit messages to female colleagues who were 16-18 years old.
Following the BBC investigation, McDonald’s brought in outside consultants, Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC), to audit their restaurants and check on the wellbeing of their staff. But Elliott says the franchise he worked for managed to “rig” its inspection, which took place in February.
He said: “They were meeting the best employees, hand-plucked from different stores. The people that can be coached on the correct answers.” According to the worker the audit gave the restaurant a 100% rating. But he said two months before the audit, a manager working there had been accused of performing a Nazi salute to a Jewish employee.
He said PwC was not told of this allegation. He explained: “I think I am a bit traumatised by it. And I think I’ll continue to have bad memories of my employment for the rest of my life.” PwC said that while it doesn’t comment on individual clients, its site visits are “subject to a stringent set of processes” and are refined as required.
A McDonald’s spokesperson said PwC’s independent site visits “play a crucial role” in assessing each restaurant against specific criteria and ensuring standards are met. “In the few instances where our expectations have not been met, we have taken prompt corrective action,” the spokesperson said.
“The assessment procedures are under constant review by PwC and were refined early in the programme to ensure that employee interviews – which form part of the assessment – are selected randomly by independent assessors, further safeguarding the integrity of the process.”
The BBC first began investigating working conditions at McDonald’s in February 2023, after the company signed a legally binding agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), in which it pledged to protect its staff from sexual harassment. After our investigation was published in July 2023, McDonald’s apologised and set up a new unit to deal with complaints.
The EHRC also set up a dedicated hotline for abuse claims. More than 160 people approached the BBC with allegations after our initial investigation, while 300 incidents were reported to the EHRC. Now, the watchdog says it is taking stronger action against the fast-food chain.
In a new statement provided exclusively to the BBC, the EHRC said: “We are actively working with McDonalds to update our ongoing legal agreement in light of serious allegations raised by our work with the company, and the BBC investigation.” Its action plan will involve strengthening the existing measures.
This includes providing more training and conducting a survey of workers – as well as announcing new steps, the BBC understands. McDonald’s said the agreement with the EHRC was signed “with the intention that it continues to evolve to ensure the robust measures we have in place are aligned with any updated guidance”.
Separately, law firm Leigh Day said it had been instructed to start legal action against McDonald’s by hundreds of staff and former staff, with more than 450 restaurants implicated in the claims. A McDonald’s spokesperson said: “Ensuring the 168,000 people that work in McDonald’s restaurants are safe is the most important responsibility for both us and our franchisees.
“We have undertaken extensive work over the last year to ensure we have industry-leading practices in place to support this priority. Any incident of misconduct and harassment is unacceptable and subject to rapid and thorough investigation and action. Our relentless focus on eliminating all forms of harassment at McDonald’s is led by a newly created team and informed by the experience and guidance of external experts.”
It said it had rolled out company-wide programmes to improve safeguarding, drive awareness and enhance training, and in addition to the four existing channels, it had introduced an additional way for employees to speak up, confidentially, at any time, allowing employees to “instantly raise issues digitally”, and which was “specifically designed to ensure they feel empowered to speak up”.
It also said its new investigations unit was “dedicated to rooting out any behaviour that falls below the high standards” it demands of its workers. “We are confident that we are taking significant and important steps to tackle the unacceptable behaviours facing every organisation,” the spokesperson added.
It said its latest anonymous employee survey showed that 92% of its franchisees’ people are now comfortable speaking up, and 93% believe management will act. “However, we know that we must be constantly vigilant, and we will challenge and confront any behaviour that falls below those standards,” it said.
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