Alistair Macrow, the CEO of McDonald’s UK and Ireland, is scheduled to appear before MPs today following fresh allegations of sexual harassment, despite the company’s ongoing efforts to address its problematic culture.
On 7 January 2025, Macrow answered several questions relating to employment rights from the business and trade select committee as the BBC issued further allegations of sexual harassment and bullying.
In February 2023, McDonald’s Restaurants entered into a section 23 agreement with the Government’s equality watchdog due to concerns about how harassment complaints from UK staff were being handled.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission stated:
“We are actively working with McDonald’s to update our ongoing legal agreement in light of serious allegations raised by our work with the company, and the BBC investigation.”
McDonald’s working culture
Recent allegations reported by the BBC include a 17-year-old former employee on a zero-hours contract who claimed a manager in his 30s asked her for sex in exchange for extra shifts. An additional previous employee at a McDonald’s location in Scotland described facing “degrading and humiliating” homophobic harassment. When raising this with higher management, they dismissed it as “just a bit of banter.”
Another individual left their McDonald’s position in the Midlands in the previous year, citing a “toxic” environment. They detailed being targeted for their learning disability and eye condition, while reporting that staff and managers exhibited racist behaviour and supervisors tried to “touch other staff up.”
The business and trade committee chair, Liam Byrne, characterised these incidents as “appalling.” Speaking to the BBC, he stated:
“There is a clear pattern of abuse here that suggests that McDonald’s has become a hotbed of harassment and it’s incredibly serious. When the boss of McDonald’s came before us last year, he promised to root out this problem, and it’s clear he has failed.”
After the BBC’s 2023 investigation, McDonald’s enlisted PwC to evaluate its establishments and assess worker welfare. However, a young former senior manager who oversaw a southern England location alleged the inspections were “rigged” to only include interviews with select employees.
In response, a McDonald’s representative informed the BBC that PwC’s visits serve a “crucial role” in evaluating establishments against specific standards.
“In the few instances where our expectations have not been met, we have taken prompt corrective action,” they said. “The assessment procedures are under constant review by PwC and were refined early in the programme to ensure that employee interviews – which form part of the assessment – are selected randomly by independent assessors, further safeguarding the integrity of the process.”
In 2021, McDonald’s employees walked out in 12 US cities in protest against how the restaurant chain has handled sexual harassment claims, specifically in franchised outlets.
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