Sexual harassment allegations at the fast food giant came to the fore in 2023 and provide an example, argues Emma Cocker, of how insecure employment can contribute to power imbalances that create a toxic workplace culture.

Marking its 50th anniversary in the UK, McDonald’s announced plans last August to open more than 200 new restaurants in the UK and Ireland over the next four years. However, problems in its current national network of 1,450 UK outlets continue to loom large, with a deluge of allegations of employee harassment and abuse threatening to cloud the company’s agenda.

In July 2023, a BBC investigation into working conditions at McDonald’s lifted the lid on what it described as “a toxic culture of sexual assault, harassment, racism and bullying” following allegations by more than 100 staff at UK retail outlets of the fast-food chain. According to the BBC, workers, some of them as young as 17, had experience of being abused, bullied, groped and routinely harassed.

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The BBC investigation was prompted by disclosures made by whistleblowers after McDonald’s signed a legally binding agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in February 2023 in which it pledged to protect its staff from sexual harassment.

The EHRC agreement had itself been reached in response to concerns about the handling of sexual harassment complaints made by staff in its UK restaurants. McDonald’s confirmed that it had “fallen short” and it “deeply apologised”, adding that all employees deserved to work in a safe, respectful and inclusive workplace.

Last month, Alistair Macrow, CEO for McDonald’s UK & Ireland, appeared before MPs sitting on the Business and Trade Select Committee. He told them that 29 people had been dismissed over the past year following allegations of sexual harassment.

Liam Byrne MP, the chair of the Business and Trade Select Committee, asked Macrow if McDonald’s had “basically now become a predator’s paradise”. Macrow said the allegations raised by the BBC were “abhorrent, they are unacceptable and there is no place for them in McDonald’s” and the company was determined to create a culture where there was “no hiding place for bad actors”.

Despite repeated pledges from Macrow that the firm was taking appropriate action to improve working conditions and clean up behaviour, the situation does not appear to have improved. Since its original investigation into the company was delivered, the EHRC has received 300 reports of harassment, while more than 700 current and former employees are taking legal action and accusing McDonald’s of failing to protect them.

The law in relation to employers’ responsibilities is unambiguous. Under the Equality Act 2010, employers have a statutory duty to protect all staff from discrimination and harassment, regardless of whether they are employees or workers, and regardless of whether they are engaged on a full-time, part-time, or casual basis.

According to the BBC, 89% of McDonald’s 170,000 UK workers were on zero-hours contracts in January 2025, despite the firm’s 2017 announcement that workers would be offered the choice of a flexible or fixed contract offering minimum guaranteed hours. The minimum hours contracts were for a minimum of 30 hours, 16 hours or 4 hours a week, but most workers opted for flexibility.

Insecure employment

Like many zero-hours workers, McDonald’s staff face employment insecurity, which invariably leaves them reluctant to raise complaints because of fears that they will become subject to detrimental treatment as a consequence. It therefore follows that the true extent of discrimination and harassment suffered by McDonald’s staff may be much higher than current figures suggest.

Zero-hours contracts, by their very nature, result in a power imbalance in which an employer holds significantly greater power than the individual. Without any guarantee as to the number or timetable of working hours, staff have little control over their income and schedule, putting them in a vulnerable position whereby they can be easily pressurised into complying with an employer’s demands, or face not being offered hours in future.

The abuse that arises from the inherent power imbalance that exists in zero-hours workplace relationships can lead to significant liabilities for businesses. Employers therefore need to be acutely aware of potential discrimination and harassment in the workplace and what may happen should they fail to address these issues. The ongoing issues at McDonald’s and the company’s abject failure to provide a safe, harassment-free environment have generated a raft of bad publicity which will ultimately affect profits.

The UK government’s Employment Rights Bill aims to ensure that “exploitative” zero-hours contracts will end. The bill includes measures which are designed to provide workers with greater security and predictability: a right to guaranteed hours, where the number of hours offered reflects the hours worked by the worker during a reference period (which is anticipated to be 12 weeks) along with a right to reasonable notice of shifts, and a right to payment for shifts cancelled or curtailed at short notice.

While these changes will not directly reduce instances of discrimination and harassment, they may help to eradicate the fears and insecurity faced by zero-hours workers. In the meantime, it is clear that McDonald’s still has a long way to go in providing a safe working environment that is free from discrimination and harassment – and in changing public perception that this is indeed the case. How the company handles the growing number of claims made against it will be carefully scrutinised.

 

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