Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Danielle Paquette.
Examples
Breauna Morrow, a 15-year-old crew member in St. Louis, told reporters that one of her co-workers began to harass her “almost immediately.”
“He would make comments about my body, what he would do to me,” the teenager said. One question he asked her, according to her EEOC complaint: “Have you ever had white chocolate inside you?”
When she asked her manager how to handle it, Morrow said they replied: “You will never win that battle.”
Tanya Harrel, who works at a store in New Orleans, said she felt helpless after telling her boss that a co-worker had grabbed her butt.
“My supervisor didn’t take it seriously,” she said.
So, after another employee pushed her into a bathroom and tried to have sex with her, she didn’t think the company would punish him.
“I didn’t even report the second incident,” Harrel said.
Kimberley Lawson, who works in Kansas City, said her manager sent her home early after she rebuffed his sexual advances.
“I reported his behavior to the GM,” she said, “but nothing was done.”
McDonald’s response
The company said it did not tolerate misconduct. “At McDonald’s Corporation, we are and have been committed to a culture that fosters the respectful treatment of everyone,” McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey said in a statement. “There is no place for harassment and discrimination of any kind in our workplace.”
The Labor Department scrapped Obama-era guidelines last year that suggested chains such as McDonald’s be held accountable for mistreatment that occurs at any of its stores, regardless of the owner. (The document wasn’t legally binding, but it was designed to inform judges who rule on such cases.)
Fast food industry
A 2016 survey by Hart Research Associates found 40 percent of women in the fast-food industry say they’ve encountered unwanted sexual behavior at work, including suggestive comments and groping.
Time’s Up
Complaints from the McDonald’s workers were filed with financial support from the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, a $21 million charity launched in January to support low-income workers who want to report sexual harassment. About 20,000 people have donated to the effort in the past five months.
Fight for $15, a group that supports low-income workers, coordinated the EEOC complaints on behalf of the McDonald’s workers.
