Bad behaviour issues 'still exist' in restaurants, says new boss of McDonald's

THE new boss of McDonald's has admitted 'bad behaviour' is still a problem in restaurants, adding that it's 'naive' to deny it... this coming three years after a sexual harassment scandal involving a Plymouth teenager was exposed.

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The fast food giant was accused of having a toxic culture in which staff as young as 17 suffered a catalogue of abuse, including groping, racism, homophobia, and bullying. Many of the claims were against managers in the firm's franchisee-run restaurants.

In Plymouth, a 17-year-old alleged a senior manager choked and groped her. After an initial BBC investigation in 2023, McDonald's apologised and set up a new unit to deal with complaints.

Lauren Schultz, chief executive of McDonald's in the UK and Ireland, has now told The Mirror that its processes were now "best in class". Yet she also admitted it was still having to deal with the result of what she called “bad behaviour".

She said: “We have a handling unit and they are tier-based in terms of severity. We look into them and assess them and from there make sure that we have the right processes in place to hold people accountable if they persist. We have not seen an overabundance of them. I'm not going to be naive and say we have no bad behaviour issues, but they have been dramatically reduced.