McDonald's workers in the UK as young as 16 say they were sexually harassed on the job, an explosive report says
Erin McDowell/Insider
- A five-month BBC investigation paints a picture of a toxic work culture McDonald's UK.
- More than 100 current and former workers detailed allegations of harassment, sexual assault, racism, and homophobia.
- McDonald's UK apologized and said it would investigate the allegations.
An explosive BBC article based on allegations from more than 100 current and former McDonald's UK workers paints a picture of a toxic work culture at the fast-food giant, with claims of harassment, sexual assault, racism, and homophobia.
In many cases, managers were responsible for the incidents, the current and former workers told the broadcaster. Workers as young as 16 said they were sexually harassed on the job.
During the BBC's five-month investigation, it heard claims that a restaurant manager suggested a 16-year-old male worker perform sexual acts in exchange for vapes, another manager tried to pressurize new 16-year-old female workers into having sex, and male managers and crew members at one restaurant in Wales joked about betting on which of them would be the first to sleep with a new hire.
A former worker told the BBC that a senior restaurant manager choked her and grabbed her buttocks when she was 17 and that a shift manager separately sent her sexually-explicit photos.
One worker said that she was left with no choice but to quit her job after a male colleague slapped her on the buttocks when she was 19, leaving a bruise. The incident was caught on camera and she reported it to her manager, but she was still made to work with the colleague, she said.
"It's the expectation that if you work at McDonald's, you will be harassed," a former worker told the BBC.
Some young female workers said that they felt they were constantly judged on their appearance, and were made by their managers to wear uniforms too tight for them.
"There is a saying at McDonald's, 'tits on tills' – boys in the kitchen, girls on the counter," a worker told the BBC. "The idea is to put attractive people at the front."
The BBC reported that it also heard claims of racism, including staff at one restaurant pretending to imitate a worker originally from India by speaking "gibberish" and one worker calling a 17-year-old employee a racial slur and saying he wanted to make a "black and white" baby with her.
Some workers said that when they reported the incidents, the managers were simply transferred to another restaurant in the same franchise network. Some said they didn't complain because they worried about having their shifts cut.
In a statement shared with Insider, McDonald's UK & Ireland CEO Alistair Macrow said that each of the company's employees "deserves to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace." McDonald's has a "zero-tolerance approach to any kind of harassment," he said.
"There are clearly instances where we have fallen short and for that we deeply apologise," he continued.
Macrow added that McDonald's UK would investigate all the allegations. "All proven breaches of our code of conduct will be met with the most severe measures we can legally impose, up to and including dismissal," he said.
Do you work at McDonald's? Got a story? Contact this reporter at gdean@insider.com.