"3 new complaints from McDonald's workers accuse the company of a 'pattern of sexual harassment' and retaliation", 26 October 2021

McDonald's workers in 10 US cities are planning a one-day strike over what they say is a huge sexual harassment problem throughout the chain. 

Workers participating in the walkout are working with Fight for $15...The organization is also filing three new EEOC complaints alleging retaliation for reporting sexual harassment.

"McDonald's was and is engaged in a pattern of sexual harassment against women, including by maintaining a hostile work environment at its stores and retaliating against those who complain about sexual harassment," according to one of the complaints filed with the agency about a McDonald's location in California.

"Every single person working at a McDonald's restaurant deserves to feel safe and respected when they come to work, and sexual harassment and assault have no place in any McDonald's restaurant." McDonald's USA told Insider in a statement. "We know more work is needed to further our workplace ambitions, which is why all 40,000 McDonald's restaurants will be assessed and accountable to Global Brand Standards."

The female employee says that she worked in a corporate-owned location from November 2019 to August 2020, and she reported inappropriate touching and actions between a department manager and a teenage cashier...

"After I repeatedly reported and opposed sexual harassment, McDonald's retaliated against me by changing my working conditions, filing pretextual written reprimands against me, denying me a transfer, and terminating my employment," the complaint says.

Another worker, in a new EEOC filing in Louisiana, alleges that she was harassed by a coworker between December 2020 and January 2021, which eventually led to her losing her job at McDonald's.

"He regularly asked me about having sex and graphically described the sexual acts he wanted to engage in with me," showed the reporting worker pictures of his genitals, and asked to touch her breasts, she wrote. 

After reporting this treatment, the manager "would frequently avoid me and became unfairly critical of my work," the report says. until she was told to leave and not come back.

In the third new complaint, a 16-year-old employee in Illinois says that a shift manager repeatedly touched her at work beginning in May 2021, and her hours were reduced in retaliation after reporting.

"I felt so uncomfortable and scared that I could not bear to keep working in that environment," so she quit in June 2021...