2023-07-22 16:19:34
image caption,
Shelby says she was in ‘constant fear’ when she worked at a McDonald’s restaurant
Article informationAuthor, Noor Nanji, Zoe Conway & Ellie LayheRole, BBC News
an hour ago
A toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism and intimidation has been denounced by more than 100 current and recent British employees of the establishments of the fast food chain McDonald’s.
The BBC has learned that employees, some as young as 17, are almost systematically groped and harassed.
McDonald’s said it had “failed in its duty” and offered its “deepest apologies”.
He added that all employees deserved to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive environment.
The BBC began investigating working conditions at McDonald’s in February following 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.
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At the time, McDonald’s insisted that “we already have a strong track record in this area”.
But our investigation revealed a very different picture.
For five months, we interviewed McDonald’s employees regarding their work experience. Of the approximately 100 allegations made by employees we spoke to, 31 involved sexual assault and 78 involved sexual harassment.
We also collected 18 allegations of racism and six allegations of homophobia.
Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.
The BBC has become aware of some allegations:
Cheshire worker, 17, claims a colleague 20 years older than her called her a racial slur, asked her to show him his penis and told her he wanted to make a ‘black and white’ baby with her. A team leader also sent her sexually explicit images A Hampshire manager who suggested a 16-year-old employee engage in sex acts in exchange for vaping A manager who preyed on new 16-year-old female employees at a restaurant in Cheshire, trying to pressure them into having sex A woman who said she was called name-calling and made the subject of racist jokes at an Aberdeen branch Worker in Es sex who claims she was the victim of anti-Semitic slurs. A female worker currently on duty in Oxfordshire, from India, who claims crew members spoke in ‘gibberish’ to imitate her and called a Pakistani colleague a terrorist. gonorrhea at a branch in Northern Ireland where sexual relations between staff members were commonplace.
Several workers told us that McDonald’s managers in UK outlets were responsible for the harassment and assaults.
Too often, senior managers would not respond to complaints.
Staff members have also told the BBC of sexual relationships between managers and younger members of staff, which is once morest company policy.
Young women explained that they constantly felt judged on their appearance.
A current employee said her male colleagues saw her as “fresh flesh” when she started working at her Nottingham branch. Other workers told us that managers forced them to wear uniforms that were too tight for them.
“At McDonald’s there’s a saying, ‘tits on tills’. The idea is to put attractive people up front,” said Lucy, 22, who worked in Norwich.
“You expect that if you work at McDonald’s, you will be harassed,” adds Emily, 20. She left her Brighton branch last year following a colleague in his 60s repeatedly stroked her hair in a sexually suggestive way and made her feel uncomfortable.
McDonald’s is one of the largest private sector employers in the UK. The fast food giant employs more than 170,000 people in 1,450 restaurants.
Its staff is also one of the youngest in the country. Three-quarters of its employees are between 16 and 25 years old. For many of them, this is their first job.
Most workers are not directly employed by the company, as McDonald’s uses a franchise system, meaning individual operators are allowed to run outlets and employ staff.
‘I went to work in fear’
Shelby was just 16 when she started working at a McDonald’s restaurant in Berkshire last year.
She says older male colleagues used the cramped kitchen as an excuse to touch younger female employees inappropriately.
“They were groping their bellies, their waists, their butts,” she said. “Every time I worked, there was at least one comment, either someone was brushing once morest me, a hand was brushing once morest me, or it was more serious, like someone was grabbing my buttocks, my hips”.
There was one man in his 50s, in particular, whose managers were “warning” younger staff members to steer clear, Shelby said.
One day last summer, she says she was standing at the reception desk when he came up behind her and grabbed her, pulling her to his groin.
“I froze,” she said. “I felt disgusted.
Shelby says she informed management regarding what was going on at the store, but nothing was done. In her resignation email, she spoke of a “toxic work environment”.
McDonald’s said it was “deeply sorry” to learn of Shelby’s experience. The company added that it was investigating why the issues it raised were not formally brought to the attention of staff at the time.
Leaders close their eyes
We don’t know how many of the workers we spoke to filed formal complaints. But a number of them told us that they did, but were ignored.
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Chinyere claims she was harassed by a male colleague much older than her
In the case of Chinyere, 17, in Cheshire, who was sexually and racially harassed by a much older man, she first spoke to a colleague responsible for staff welfare. She told him to ignore the man’s behavior and get back to work. After months of harassment, Chinyere confided in her stepfather who wrote to the franchise, company headquarters and the police.
The man was later fired. Chinyere thinks that if her stepfather hadn’t intervened, nothing would have happened. McDonald’s called his experience “odious and unacceptable” and issued an unreserved apology. The company said it took quick action as soon as the issue was brought to its attention and the man was fired within three days. The company added: “It takes a lot of courage to speak up and as soon as we were made aware of the situation, the individual in question was offered internal support and independent external support.”
Another Birmingham employee, who claims she was kicked on the buttocks by a male colleague when she was 19, immediately reported it to her supervisor. Although the incident was caught on video and she had a visible bruise, she was forced to continue working with him, which made her so uncomfortable that she ended up quitting.
Several workers also said that when complaints were filed once morest managers, they were moved from one McDonald’s restaurant in the franchise to another, rather than being fired.
Other employees said they weren’t complaining because they mightn’t risk losing their jobs. Young McDonald’s employees often have permanent contracts, which means their hours are flexible, but also that they are at the mercy of team leaders who decide their rotations.
What to do in case of sexual harassment at work?
Report the Incident: The Charity Victim Support indicates that you can report it to your supervisor, your Human Resources representative or your union, who will take appropriate action. Keep a file: Include dates, times and details of what happened, as well as all relevant emails. You may find this information useful if you decide to file a complaint.Getting help: Victim Support offers a free and confidential 24/7 helpline, as well as a live chat service. Call 0808 16 89 111 or use live chat at: victimsupport.org.uk/live-chat.Call the police: If sexual harassment escalates into violence, threats or sexual assault, you should report it to the police by calling 101. If you are in danger, call 999.
Training ‘not taken seriously’
In the February agreement, McDonald’s pledged to have “zero tolerance” for sexual harassment and to provide training to its employees.
But employees told the BBC the training was not taken seriously by managers.
An employee said he placed an iPad next to a McFlurry machine and sped through the harassment training video while he made drinks.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner, President of the European Commission of Human Rights, said every business should have zero tolerance for sexual harassment and protect its staff.
Its Chief Executive, Steve Easterbrook, was fired in 2019 following it was revealed he had inappropriate consensual relationships with McDonald’s employees.
Allegations of sexual harassment at McDonald’s first surfaced in the UK five years ago when the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) said it had received a thousand complaints. At the time, these allegations were very little reported, which might be explained by the fact that some cases were settled using confidentiality clauses.
Sarah Woolley, General Secretary of the BFAWU, said the new allegations revealed by the BBC were “shocking”.
Alistair Macrow, Managing Director of McDonald’s UK & Ireland, said harassment, abuse and discrimination “simply have no place” at the business.
“Every one of McDonald’s UK’s 177,000 employees deserves to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive environment. It is clear that in some cases we have fallen short and we deeply apologize for that,” he told the BBC.
“We will investigate all allegations brought to us and all proven breaches of our Code of Conduct will be subject to the strongest action we can legally impose, up to and including termination.
Mr Macrow said more than 2,000 managers had undergone comprehensive awareness training and most restaurant teams were now working within the new protections which aim to create “a safe and respectful workplace”. He added that the company enforces strict rules to ensure safety and respect in workplaces around the world.
If you have been affected by any of the issues discussed in this article, you can get information and help through the BBC Action Line.
Some of the names cited in this article have been changed to protect identities.
Additional reporting by George Dabby.
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