Thousands of McDonald's employees suffer sexual harassment: Report

Thousands of McDonald's employees, mostly women, filed complaints of sexual harassment over the years. Reports have stated that they have been denied a hearing in appropriate forums.

In a report, Deutsche Welle published an account of an employee, who told the media outlet how her first job at McDonald's turned into a nightmare when she became a victim of sexual harassment.

Mathilde, whose full name has not been published because of privacy, emerged as an activist because of her experiences at the American-based multinational fast food chain.

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The 23-year-old Mathilde and three other workers reported racism, bullying and sexual harassment at McDonald's branches in Brazil and the United States.

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Mathilde, who started her first job in 2018 at the Golden Arches, revealed one of the incidents. The Golden Arches advertises with smiling children's faces and Happy Meals.

She said that in the beginning, it was like a family and everything seemed friendly, but after some time, the mood changed. She said, "When I asked for information, the worker's representative would say: 'You only get that if you touch my genitals.' Or when I would work in the kitchen, it would be: 'You have this nice little ass.'"

Employees at several McDonald's branches in the United States had filed complaints about sexual harassment in 2016 and in 2019, some workers at 20 branches levelled accusations against the company over allowing lewd comments, indecent exposure and groping to continue.

In the latest development, the report by DW, updated on September 16 mentioned that those who are making the allegations were invited to speak at the European Parliament.

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Now, it is learned that the EU Parliament is opening a new space for these long-suffering victims of sexual harassment in McDonald's globally.

The EU Parliament is giving a platform to some of the victims to speak at a hearing. This could be the breakthrough as there's a possibility that it will reveal what has been going on.

The report also mentioned that Maria Noichl and Manon Aubry, members of the European Parliament from Germany and France, respectively said that the EU legislature should hear these stories.

McDonald's has not released any statement.

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