McDonald’s managers in UK to get sexual abuse training

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is now extending its original plan agreed in 2023 to protect staff at the fast-food chain from sexual harassment.

The new training will focus on the grooming of young workers and the use of social media.

McDonald’s has agreed to bring in an external body to review whether it was handling sexual harassment claims appropriately, the EHRC said.

The new measures apply to McDonald’s restaurants in England, Scotland and Wales.

Although franchises are not directly party to the agreement it is expected that they will adopt some of the action points.

The fast-food chain signed its legally binding agreement with the EHRC in February 2023.

The BBC first began investigating working conditions at McDonald’s after that agreement was signed. In July 2023, the BBC heard from more than 100 current and recent workers at the fast-food chain who claimed they faced sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying.

At the time, McDonald’s apologised and set up a new unit to deal with complaints.

But since then, more than 160 people have approached the BBC with allegations, while the EHRC has heard 300 reported incidents of harassment.

In January, McDonald’s workers told us they still faced sexual harassment more than a year after its chief executive promised to clean up behaviour at the fast-food chain.

One former McDonald’s employee, who previously spoke up as part of the BBC’s initial investigation, said she did not think the changes would make any difference.

“They’ve looked at what they can possibly do, in terms of what will sound promising enough, but not actually what will bring change,” she said.

“I don’t actually think they have any personal desire to make the change, I don’t think they care enough,” she added.

“It’s a check box for them to tick, like just with the training, it’s something on a to-do list and they think they’ll do it and it’ll go away, but it just won’t happen.”

Earlier this year, law firm Leigh Day said it had been instructed to start legal action against McDonald’s by hundreds of staff and former staff, with more than 450 restaurants implicated in the claims.

“I think we can assume that the equality watchdog wouldn’t be taking this action if things were ok at McDonald’s,” Leigh Day employment lawyer Kiran Daurka said.

“They already had their initial agreement with McDonald’s in 2023. So the EHRC appear to be concerned that not enough progress has been made.”

Ms Daurka said the firm would like to see “more interrogation” of the relationship between the corporate side of the business and the franchises, “as we’ve seen how issues of sexual harassment can fall between the gaps”.