Rosalia Manuel of San Jose, California, began working at McDonald's when she was 17 years old.
On July 8, Manuel was fired from her job, which she claims was in retaliation for reporting a coworker's sexual harassment to corporate HR, despite being told the termination was due to her failure to take a work break early enough in her shift.
Manuel saw a coworker run to the bathroom to hide from a male coworker in February, after which the coworker told her about the sexual harassment she was experiencing from the male coworker, who was related to one of the managers.
The male coworker constantly propositioned her coworker, bought her gifts, inappropriately touched her, and offered to pay her to go to a motel with him. Manuel reported the harassment to corporate HR on her behalf, which resulted in the removal of the male coworker from the store, but their manager was furious with Manuel for not reporting it to her.
"They began to play with us. "They got on top of us and started writing complaints for everything," Manuel explained.
The harassed coworker received a written reprimand, was suspended for a week, and then fired. Manuel was written up on July 1 for leaving work too late while the store was short-staffed, and she was fired when she returned on July 8.
"I was taken aback. "I went to my car and began to cry because I knew I had done the right thing, but I was being fired and punished for it," Manuel explained.
She has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding her termination.
"They want us to be quiet," Manuel explained. "I want people to understand what's going on, how they're exploiting us while saying something else in their promotions."
A class-action lawsuit was filed against McDonald's in the United States in 2020, representing 5,000 women at more than 100 McDonald's locations, over systemic sexual harassment issues in restaurants. In 2021, a judge denied the company's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
In April, McDonald's reached a $1.5 million settlement in a separate class-action lawsuit filed in Michigan in 2019 over sexual harassment issues.
On July 28, a worker at a McDonald's in New Orleans, Louisiana, filed a lawsuit against the company for sexual harassment on the job and retaliation for reporting it to management in late 2020 and early 2021.
In 2020, an international coalition of labor unions filed a complaint against McDonald's with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the Netherlands, accusing the company of systemic sexual harassment worldwide, citing numerous incidents in the United States, Brazil, and France.
On August 8, the Brazilian Senate held a public hearing on working conditions in fast-food chains, in response to numerous incidents of sexual harassment and racism at McDonald's restaurants in Brazil.
Gabriel Milbrat, who testified at the hearing, won a settlement against McDonald's after numerous incidents of sexual harassment and racial discrimination while working at a So Paulo McDonald's. He quit his job after a manager who was sexually harassing him ejaculated on him in the break room.
"That was my cue to leave McDonald's, to abandon everything." It was the middle of the pandemic, and my mother was sick at the time; she had been in a labor accident, and I was thinking to myself and asking God, "Come on, there's a pandemic, everything's shut down, how can I find another job because I was the only one who had a salary at home?" Milbrat told the Guardian about it.
McDonald's has also faced numerous other allegations of wrongdoing around the world, including a recent $1.3 billion tax evasion settlement in France and being forced to remove antitrust clauses from franchising contracts in Italy following an investigation into anti-competitive concerns that began in 2021.
In Australia, a union representing over 250,000 current and former McDonald's employees filed a claim in August for up to $250 million in alleged unpaid wages for denied rest breaks.
In addition to low wages and working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic, workers in the United States have complained about other forms of retaliation and discrimination at McDonald's.
Seberiana Reymundo, a 15-year McDonald's employee in Saratoga, California, filed a complaint earlier this year alleging that she was not paid sick leave while fighting cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. She also claimed that her hours were reduced after she requested job accommodations while awaiting a liver transplant.
"They said, 'You're no use to me,'" Reymundo explained. "My doctor wrote a note, I got the note, and I brought it to my managers, and after I presented them with my doctor's note, they began retaliating against me."
McDonald's made no specific comments about the allegations or lawsuits.
In response to the allegations in the United States, a McDonald's spokesperson stated in an email, "McDonald's has been clear that sexual harassment will not be tolerated." Everyone who works under the Arches should be able to arrive at work each day with confidence, knowing that they are working in a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment. McDonald's will require Global Brand Standards in all restaurants worldwide beginning January 1, 2022, as announced in 2021, to reinforce our commitment to these values."
Regarding the allegations in Brazil, the spokesperson added, "Arcos Dorados, the company that operates McDonald's restaurants in 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries, does not tolerate any form of harassment or discrimination."