MCDONALD’ S WORKERS FILE SEX HARASSMENT CLAIMS
NEWYORK— Energized by the # MeToo movement, two national advocacy groups are teaming up to lodge sexual harassment complaints against McDonald’s on behalf of 10 women who have worked at the fast food restaurant in nine cities.
Two of the women are fromChicago. One, from St. Louis, is just 15. They alleged a variety of offenses — groping, propositions for sex, indecent exposure and lewd comments by supervisors. According to their complaints, when the women reported the harassment, they were ignored or mocked, and in some cases suffered retaliation.
One Chicago woman complained about a co- worker using “crude, sexually explicit remarks” on one occasion and then, on another day, “asked me if I would like to see his penis.” This person “frequently made sexually explicit remarks aboutme and the other crew members to McDonald’s employees and to customers” and “would narrate lurid fantasies about what he would do if he got one of us in the bathroom alone.” She wrote in her complaint that she was terminated in retaliation for speaking up about the coworker’s actions.
Another Chicago employee said her manager “refers tome as ‘ sexy’ or his ‘ girlfriend.’ This treatment makes me feel angry and humiliated.” She was abruptly sent home for most of one shift and all of another “in retaliation for me pushing back against his harassment,” she wrote in her EEOC filing.
The legal effort was organized by Fight for $ 15, which campaigns to raise pay for low- wage workers. The legal costs are being covered by the TIMES UP Legal Defense Fund, whichwas launched in January by the National Women’s Law Center to provide attorneys for women who cannot afford to bring cases on their own.
The complaints, filed with the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, were announced on Tuesday, two days ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
Responding to the claims, McDonald’s spokeswoman Terri Hickey said there is “no place for harassment and discrimination of any kind” in the workplace.
“McDonald’s Corporation takes allegations of sexual harassment very seriously and are confident our independent franchiseeswho own and operate approximately 90 percent of our 14,000 U. S. restaurants will do the same,” Hickey said by email.
Fight for $ 15 said the restaurants named in the complaints are run by franchisees, not directly by McDonald’s. But the complaints name both McDonald’s Corp. and the franchisee.
Among the new complainants is Tanya Harrell, 22, of New Orleans, who alleges that her two managers teased her, but otherwise took no action after she told them of sustained verbal and physical harassment by a co- worker.
Harrell, who makes $ 8.15 an hour, says going public with her complaint may be emotionally taxing, but she is proud of her decision.
“I feel like I have a voice now,” she said in a telephone interview. “It gives me a bit of motivation and a bit of courage.”