NEW YORK – Energised by MeToo, female workers of American fast food company McDonald’s, lodged complaints of sexual harassment at the workplace against the firm.
As many as ten employees, including a 15-year-old girl, who worked at different franchises of the food chain in the US has filed complaints with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, levelling allegations of groping, propositions for sex, indecent exposure and lewd comments by supervisors.
Similar incidents were also reported some two years ago.
Two national advocacy groups – The Fight for $15 and TIMES UP Legal Defense Fund – have teamed up to contest the case of the workers. The Fight will provide legal assistance while the legal costs are being covered by the other group.
The victim workers – based in cities such as Miami, Los Angeles and Detroit – got no help from their heads when they highlighted the harassment but they were mocked and ignored, The Fight for $15 said.
It further said that some of them faced retaliation or fired from the job for reporting the incidents.
In one example, Breauna Morrow, a 15-year-old cashier in St Louis, said that she had been “repeatedly harassed” by a co-worker using “graphic, sexual language,” reported BBC. She said that the supervisor did not take any action when the issue was raised.
“I know I’m not the only one and that’s why I’m speaking out, so others don’t have to face the harassment I’ve gone through,” Morrow said.
Responding to the claims, McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey said there is “no place for harassment and discrimination of any kind”.
“McDonald’s Corporation takes allegations of sexual harassment very seriously and are confident our independent franchisees who own and operate approximately 90 percent of our 14,000 U.S. restaurants will do the same,” Hickey said by email.
