
Over 700 junior McDonald’s workers based in the UK have joined legal action against the company, alleging discrimination, sexual harassment and homophobia. The legal action has implicated over 450 McDonald’s outlets in the UK.
Widespread sexual abuse and harassment was uncovered during an investigation by the BBC in 2023 and resulted in McDonald’s signing a legal agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) where it promised to address the concerns. Despite this, workers have continued to experience harassment, with many feeling unsupported by management.
Since the 2023 investigation, the EHRC has reportedly received 300 further complaints of harassment; including racist and homophobic comments by managers, workers being asked inappropriate sexual questions and being pestered for sex and being bullied due to disability. This has resulted in the EHRC escalating its intervention and updating its legal agreement with McDonald’s.
In response, McDonald’s states that it has taken steps to address the issues, which include hiring a head of safeguarding and rolling out programmes to improve safeguarding, awareness and training. McDonald’s has also confirmed that ensuring the safety of its 168,000 workers is its top priority.
The ongoing issues relating to workplace harassment are having reputational consequences for McDonald’s, as well as it needing to deal with the legal case and the EHRC intervention.
The report and the ongoing implications of this demonstrate the need to have a positive workplace culture which sends a clear message that harassment will not be tolerated.
One way in which this can be achieved is training on harassment issues and how a business can ensure it is doing everything it can to prevent harassment from occurring.
Glaisyers are currently offering ‘preventing harassment’ training which covers several points including the new proactive duty to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, ways in which businesses can show compliance, and ways that companies can improve their culture surrounding harassment issues.
If you would like further information, please contact a member of the employment team – Gemma.Durham@glaisyers.com.