McDonalds sexual harassment claim - what can employers learn?
Posted on 9th January 2025
More than 700 of McDonald's staff and former staff, from across 450 outlets, are taking legal action against the company regarding sexual harassment. Allegations suggest that sexual harassment is rife across the organisation, and that managers are not seriously tackling the problem.
What went wrong?
Under the Worker Protection Act, employers have a positive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment from occurring in the course of employment. This duty extends to preventing sexual harassment from third parties. It is important that employers engage fully with this obligation and act ahead of any problems. A tick-box exercise or responsive approach will not be enough.
The EHRC has suggested some risk factors for sexual harassment, which are a useful starting point for all employers.
Some of these factors are especially relevant in this claim:
Job insecurity makes it difficult for staff to speak up
Many of the workers were on zero hours contracts, and there are allegations of managers using their power to provide shifts against workers.
Working at night or alone with customers
We don’t know which branches of McDonalds are concerned, but many branches are open late at night. When smaller numbers of staff are working at quieter times, workers have less support from fellow workers and less protection against harassment from colleagues or customers. Employers should consider additional precautions for nighttime shifts, such as a minimum number of staff.
Gendered power imbalance
Although we don’t know the makeup of McDonalds staff, the claim includes on example of a manager preying on young female workers. If managers are disproportionately male, employers might investigate why, and how to support more women into management.
It appears that McDonalds does have an active disciplinary process. However, in the context of 700 complainants who have either experienced harassment or been exposed to an unsafe workplace, the 75 allegations received by McDonalds in the last 12 months seems low. This could suggest an issue with their process for reporting allegations. McDonalds could reassess the system for reporting complaints, asking staff for feedback on the process. They should also look at how complaints are handled, and mechanisms to ensure that complainants are not victimised through reduced shifts or other retaliation.
The reports suggest that managers who received complaints were not helpful, with workers told to “suck it up” and to leave the job if they couldn’t deal with harassment. It seems managers either did not understand, or were not engaged with, their responsibilities. This could be due to poor training, or because the role is seen as short-term for young workers. McDonalds could consider training to improve employee's understanding of their roles, as well as ways to increase pride and engagement.
Where, as in this case, the existing disciplinary process does not seem to have dealt with the problems, ongoing monitoring is even more important. After disciplinary action, the workplace should be monitored to see whether there is any improvement to the culture, and whether there are further allegations. If the workplace does not improve, employers must consider what more needs to be done.
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