McDonald's Faces Another Lawsuit Over Alleged Harassment of Black Workers and Diners

Three Black McDonald's employees filed an anti-discrimination lawsuit against the chain in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois this week. 

The plaintiffs, who worked at a Rock Island, Illinois location, claim that the restaurant's general manager called Black employees and diners "ghetto" and that other workers referred to Black employees in a derogatory manner. The plaintiffs also claim that Black employees were granted fewer work hours than non-Black employees, and that when plaintiff Stephanie Stevens approached management about discriminator language used toward plaintiff Selynda Middlebrook, Stevens was fired immediately.

McDonald’s has been accused of allowing toxic workplace culture to thrive at both the corporate and store level for years, and though the QSR giant has denied these accounts, allegations continue to surface. 

This Illinois case is the latest in a series of discrimination lawsuits slapped against the Golden Arches this year. In August, 52 Black ex-franchisees sued the chain for allegedly "steering plaintiffs to locations with low-volume sales and higher operating costs, such as higher security costs due to crime, higher insurance rates, and higher employee turnover.” A suit in January also accused the company of pushing Black executives from senior leadership under former CEO Steve Easterbrook and current CEO Chris Kempczinski, as well as forcing Black operators out of the system. 

"The top-down systemic racism evident in McDonald's C-suite, as evidenced by recent allegations by Black executives and Black franchisees, reaches down to the restaurant level, where individual managers and franchisees are not held accountable for engaging in, and failing to prevent, discrimination on the basis of race," the complaint states.

The employees are also suing franchisee Gendco Inc., which is named as a joint employer in the case. Trina Gendron, the Rock Island McDonald’s franchisee, told Nation's Restaurant News, "I am deeply committed to running a values-led organization, and discrimination, harassment or retaliation of any kind are not tolerated in my restaurants. I take these allegations seriously and am currently reviewing the complaint and investigating these allegations." 

This question of whether McDonald’s should be held accountable for one franchisee’s actions is certainly nothing new. The lawsuit's attempt to hold McDonald's responsible for the Rock Island franchisee's alleged discrimination as a joint employer resurfaces issues from a previous case. 

In December 2019, McDonald's scored a major labor win when the National Labor Relations Board absolved the chain as a joint employer from responsibility for labor violations brought forward eight years prior by the Fight for $15 and other labor organizations. The ruling suggested that in the future, restaurants would not have to pay for their franchisee's illegal activities because those operators would be dealt with as entities independent of the corporate restaurant parent. While this was a big win for restaurant chains, critics noted that it took away even more power from labor groups. 

This year, the NLRB then clarified the joint employer rule in February, protecting franchisors from being on the hook for labor infractions committed by their franchisees. But last month, the House Committee on Education and Labor subpoenaed the NLRB for alleged ethical violations involving the December ruling, and is also investigating the agency's decision to narrow the joint employer rule in February. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York also held that the latest final joint employer rule conflicted with the Fair Labor Standards Act and was "arbitrary and capricious" because the Department of Labor "failed to adequately justify its departure from its prior interpretations" and didn't account for the impact of the rule on workers.

If the December ruling and the updated joint employer definition processes are found to be unethical, it could mean that the chain will be responsible for the consequences of this new lawsuit and any future ones. The implications for the chain are significant, as 95% of McDonald's U.S. system is franchised, and as the largest franchisor in the world, the results of the lawsuit will likely create a precedent for the industry as a whole.