A McDonald’s worker has warned other young people to “think very carefully” before taking a job at the fast food giant after claiming inappropriate behaviour is still “extremely common”. The burger chain has been rocked by allegations of sex abuse and harassment by teenage staff members. The accusations include one manager offering a worker extra shifts for sex. McDonald’s vowed in November 2023 to tackle the problem.
But fresh allegations emerged earlier this month, suggesting it was continuing. It is backed by Matty - not his real name - who says he still works for McDonald’s and spoke to the Mirror. “The physical stuff has gone away a lot, but conversations of a sexual nature are extremely common,” he said.
The Mirror can also reveal more than 30 current and former McDonald’s workers have joined a legal action against the company since new claims emerged just a week ago, taking the number now to more than 750. Matty says his only other job before starting at McDonald’s aged 16 was as a paperboy. “I started noticing people having conversations of an overtly sexual nature, and trying to include you in that as well,” he said. “They’d be questions like, ‘have you lost your virginity?’ or ‘how big is your d**k?’ It is what they would have called jokey banter. It started as low level. It was the culture - it was pretty widespread.”.
He says it then escalated: “We had this guy who would come in every day and slap peoples’ bums. He would go along the line, one by one, girls, boys, old, young. It was almost like a handshake, like a greeting.” Matty says he stayed at McDonald’s because of the pay and his friends, but has joined the legal action to try to change the culture.
