McDonald’s workers are forced to endure sexual abuse

McDonald’s workers on strike in 2019 (Picture: flickr/WarOnWant)

Teenage girls are subjected to sexual abused and harassed in fast-food outlets on British high streets. McDonald’s workers face unrelenting sexual abuse and widespread harassment at work.

A report by the BBC into British branches of the multinational has found that abuse and harassment continue unchecked, despite bosses’ promises of change.

Most MacDonald’s workers are aged between 16 and 25. One teenage worker was forced to quit her job when managers inappropriately touched her, and customers sexually harassed her. When she complained, she was told to “suck it up”. Another female worker was sent topless pictures from a male manager.

A manager asked one 17-year-old woman, known as Claire, for sex in return for extra shifts. “You don’t expect that to happen,” she said. “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 staff. In Britain 89 percent of their workers are on zero-hours contracts.

Claire says she felt “dependent” on her managers for work. “I was always asking for more shifts, as I needed more money,” she said.

Some 300 new harassment claims date from after November 2023, when the boss of McDonald’s, Alistair Macrow, promised MPs that the firm would improve working conditions. His promise came after reports of harassment at the company hit the headlines.

But nothing has changed.

Macrow told MPs that the company had stopped moving managers around so they could avoid disciplinary action. But one young manager says that just days after the promise was made a manager was moved to his store to avoid being disciplined. He was alleged to have sent sexually explicit messages to female colleagues who were 16-18 years old.

McDonald’s tried to polish their image by bringing in outside consultants, Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC), to audit it outlets. But the inspections were “rigged” with workers coached and moved in from other stores.

One young worker said the audit gave his outlet a 100 percent rating. But two months before the audit, a manager was accused of performing a Nazi salute to a Jewish employee. He said PwC was not told of this allegation.

“I think I am a bit traumatised by it,” he said. “And I think I’ll continue to have bad memories of my employment for the rest of my life.”

The UK boss of McDonald’s has been summoned to answer MPs’ questions for a second time, including claims of sexual abuse.

Abuse has been endemic at McDonald’s for years. In 2020, news outlets in the United States reported that scores of women had accused the company of fostering a workplace rife with sexual harassment. Managers ignored or ridiculed women who reported abuse.

In the summer of 2019 the press reported that McDonald’s workers were being subjected to a “toxic culture” of sexual harassment with least 1,000 women abused in their workplace. Managers made sexual comments, brushed up against staff and discussed their sexual fantasies, sent texts and explicit photos and offered better hours and promotions in return for sex.

In 2018, staff at McDonald’s restaurants in ten US cities walked out over claims the fast-food giant was not doing enough to prevent sexual harassment. The strike came after 27 women filed complaints against the chain for failing to enforce company rules against abuse.

The women were ignored after reporting incidents including groping, indecent exposure and lewd comments. More than 700 current and former junior employees are now taking legal action against the firm, accusing it of failing to protect them.

Politicians who really care about the sexual abuse of young women should be demanding urgent change at the corporation.