Homophobia, sexism, insults and attacks. Four former employees of McDonald’s, from Brazil, France and the United States, said, at the invitation of MEP Maria Noichl and Manon Aubry, the harassment they and they have undergone
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It is a moment of silence that embraces the assistance of the small room “Spaak 7 C 50” of the European Parliament, Wednesday September 7, when Jessica Carriel completes to tell the hell that managers and managers lived of a McDonald’s restaurant in Curitiba, Brazil. “I felt very alone,” she whispers, shaken by emotion.
McDonald’s, it was his first job. She was only 18 years old. Every day, he had to meet the gaze of a hierarchical superior who fell him out of ridiculous nicknames. A man who touched her without his consent and sent her unwanted intimate photos at night. “I was trying to hide my body, get away from him to avoid trouble.” It is when she discovers that other young girls go through similar tests that she decides to fight and file a complaint. “It is the very dark side of” Happy Meal “, denounces Maria Noichl, German MEP of the Socialist and Democrats group, who co -organizes the event with Manon Aubry, of rebellious France. It evokes a “systemic” problem of harassment at McDonald’s, the company which employs more than 300,000 people in Europe.
The end of impunity?
Jessica’s story echoes that of Tanya Harrel, another young girl, who came from Saint-Louis, in the United States, to tell the sexual harassment she suffered “and the managers who [the ‘] Encouraged to make a low profile “. There is also Mathilde S., 23, of the McDroits collective, who lived for two years the daily anxiety of going to his workplace, the McDonald of the Havre station. Again, inappropriate comments, touching proposals, “and a warning protocol that discredits the victims,” deplores the girl. And then there is Gabriel, also Brazilian, who suffers the consequences of his aggression by an exhibitionist and racist manager. At the four corners of the world, denunciations of this type are multiplying. For its part, the group often evokes as a guarantee of good will its own international standards – not public – for a safe work environment.
But, for Manon Aubry, the heart of the problem is “the total impunity which McDonald’s benefits. The company is cleared of its responsibilities on its franchises”. The multinational behaves “as if the franchised restaurants were another company,” deplores Kristjan Bragason, of the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Unions.
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