McDonald’s has again recently hit the headlines regarding reports of harassment at the fast-food giant. The UK and Ireland’s boss, Alistair Macrow, was summoned earlier this month to answer questions that revealed he was aware of 75 reports of sexual harassment in the last year alone, despite promising to clear up behaviour at the restaurants only little over a year ago, which illustrates harassment, and other related misconduct, is a recurring and wide-ranging issue for the company that not only requires immediate attention from a legal perspective but also reputationally and financially.
While all restaurants come under the signature McDonald’s brand identity, nearly 93 per cent of its restaurants are franchised and the rest are company operated. To explain, a franchise is a business whereby the owner licences its operations – along with its products, branding and knowledge – in exchange for a franchise fee. Subject to a successful assessment process and training programme, an applicant will be approved to start the day-to-day running of a franchised McDonald’s restaurant.
Large companies, like McDonald’s, with a franchise model should handle conduct, as well as any other issues, like any other multi-site organisation. Expected standards of behaviour and conduct should be led by the top, such as senior leadership, from the head office, and be filtered down throughout the business via clear policies, training and reporting lines. While McDonald’s has a raft of external policies and mission statements on its website, including a Human Rights Policy and a Global Statement of Principles Against Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation, the franchise model can frustrate the cohesiveness and consistency of managing employment issues and create substantial challenges in how policies and expected standards of behaviour are enforced and monitored. Mainly, this is because each franchise is run as a separate entity, with a distinct cultural identity, and this makes it difficult to harmonise the operational processes, management styles and HR oversight of employee relations.
There are several factors that have been identified as increasing the risk of sexual harassment taking place in the workplace. One of these is a power imbalance between colleagues. Given more than 75 per cent of McDonald’s staff are aged between 16 and 25, the risk of there being an unequal power dynamic between manager and younger subordinate is increased. These younger workers are more likely to be unfamiliar with a professional setting, given it will likely be their first job, and therefore less clear on what their rights are and what is acceptable conduct in the workplace. This means that they may not recognise unacceptable conduct – for example, harassment or bullying – when they are subjected to it but also that they may not have an awareness of how to behave when at work.
This also brings into focus the heightened risk of zero/low-hour contracts, both of which are popular arrangements for young workers as they provide flexibility for both parties in that employers are not required to give work and employees are not required to accept it. However, by their nature, they are more likely to become vulnerable to abuse and coercion given the wide discretion afforded to managers when allocating work and shifts and the uncertainty and irregularity of working patterns.
To help mitigate the risk of these issues in the workplace, businesses need to ensure that their staff, from senior leadership and managers to employees, are fully aware of the organisation’s zero-tolerance approach to any form of discrimination, harassment or bullying and the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of them. Reasonably accessible policies on anti-harassment and bullying and dignity at work dove-tailed with robust disciplinary and grievance procedures and training for all levels of the organisation are not only essential legal requirements under the duty to prevent sexual harassment but also make good business sense from a cultural and employee relations perspective. All staff should be aware of, and understand, the organisation’s reporting system and be reassured that they will not be victimised or retaliated against (i.e., by having their shifts reduced) for calling out unacceptable behaviour.
The current employment law landscape is evolving and in a state of flux, in view of the new duty to prevent sexual harassment and the Labour government’s Employment Rights Bill, and as such there are clear steps being taken to address the issues like those at McDonald’s. Whilst it is difficult to say whether the issues discussed would have played out in the same way had these measures already been in force, with Labour committed to addressing “one-sided flexibility” through a ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts and promising to introduce an obligation on employers not to permit harassment of their employees by third parties, it is clear we are moving in the right direction.
This article was first published in People Management: What next for McDonald’s after sexual harassment claims?
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