McDonald’s franchises to shut in UK amid sexual assault, racism claims 

United Kingdom’s McDonald’s employees, including current and ex-staff, have raised their concerns over the sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying they faced at the company’s outlets. Responding to the claims, the chair of the Business and Trade Committee in the UK said that McDonald’s should terminate franchise deals if branches are ‘not following labour law,’ said the BBC reports. This has become a big bombshell for the company, leading to the conversation.

MP Darren Jones said the claims were ‘some of the most appalling’ he had seen.

During the investigation, the UK broadcaster found that some workers, as young as 17, claimed that they were groped and harassed, and others felt forced to quit.

Earlier in February this year, the BBC began its investigative into the working conditions at McDonald’s outlets across the nation. While the restaurant chain’s insisted it had a ‘strong track record in this area,’ the investigation led to over 100 allegations from the staff related to sexual assault, harassment, racism, and homophobia in the last five months.

Here are some depressing incidents:

Reportedly, a teen, still working with the chain, revealed a depressing incident that happened to her, where a colleague decades older than her called her a ‘racial slur’ and asked to show her his private part. Then, said he wanted to make a ‘black and white’ baby with her. Another 16-year-old male worker was asked to perform sexual acts in exchange for vapes.

One of the former employees said, “They’d grope stomach, waists, bums. Every shift I worked, there would be at least a comment being made, or I’d be brushed, a hand brushed across me, or it would be a more severe thing, like having my bum grabbed, hips grabbed.”

That’s not it, an India-origin staff, currently working at the outlet, said crew members spoke in ‘gibberish’ to imitate her and called a Pakistani colleague a terrorist. There were complaints raised, but managers didn’t act upon them, the investigation revealed.

McDonald’s deeply apologises

Following the BBC’s investigation, McDonald’s ‘deeply apologised’ and said it had ‘fallen short.’

A spokesperson for British PM Rishi Sunak said the allegations are ‘deeply concerning.’

Notably, McDonald’s staff is more than 170,000 people across 1,450 restaurants in the UK and is one of the country’s largest private sector employees.