A McDonald’s franchise is due to pay almost $2 million to settle allegations teenage workers endured sexual harassment.
Court documents state managers, supervisors and other workers are alleged to have sexually touched teenage workers as well as making derogatory remarks to them and unsolicited sexual advances.
AMTCR, Inc, the franchise owner which runs around 18 McDonald’s restaurants in the states of California, Arizona and Nevada, is due to pay $1,997,500 after the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a sexual harassment lawsuit.
The franchise is alleged to have been aware sexual harassment perpetrated by supervisors, managers, and colleagues was taking place at some of its McDonald’s restaurants since at least 2017 yet permitted the misconduct to carry on.
According to court documents, a 54-year-old chef is alleged to have sexually harassed a 17-year-old employee on a nearly daily basis.
While the employee alerted the alleged sexual harassment to supervisors, his manager told him she did not believe him, the complaint states.
Anna Park, regional attorney for EEOC’s Los Angeles District Office, said: “We continue to see young workers entering the workforce being subjected to harassment in the workplace.
“Employers should take extra care that supervisors are trained to understand their obligations and that employees are encouraged to report discrimination.”
Ms Park said they are “encouraged by the robust measures AMTCR is agreeing to implement company-wide to encourage workers to raise complaints” as well as “to swiftly and effective address complaints; and to include bystander training for all employees to ensure a discrimination-free work environment”.
Charlotte A Burrows, chair of the EEOC, noted employees who are teenagers are particularly “vulnerable” to enduring harassment as she explained stopping and solving “systemic harassment and protecting vulnerable workers from discrimination” is a chief “priority” for her organisation.
It comes after McDonald's workers walked out at restaurants stretching across 12 American cities to show their opposition to how the chain deals with allegations of sexual harassment back in October 2021.
