A thriving company needs satisfied employees to maintain, and in that regard, McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) stock is really taking a tumble with this latest lawsuit. McDonald's is being sued by it's employees due to an unsafe work environment. Seventeen McDonald's workers, consisting of cooks and cashiers, in Chicago have claimed that the popular fast food chain has not addressed or fixed the condition of its workplace.
On Thursday, employees filed a complaint accusing that the franchise disregards workers' safety by staying open late at night and remodeling the buildings making the employees more vulnerable to assault. For example, McDonald's new structure remodel includes split counters with wide openings wide openings making it easier for customers to walk behind to confront employees. The seventeen workers that filed for this lawsuit were either victims of assault or witnessed acts of violence. Some of these violent incidents included a customer pulling out a gun and jumping on the counter and a customer beating up an employee with a wet floor sign.
Leading attorney of the lawsuit, Danny Rosenthal, told reporters that an average of 20 calls are made to 911 each day from McDonald's stores in Chicago. The meeting between Rosenthal and the reporters was set up by the "Fight for $15." The union-backed movement was organized to support fast-food and other low-wage workers. Rosenthal went on to say that the workers face risk of violence on a daily basis.
McDonald's made a statement saying it "takes seriously its responsibility to provide and foster a safe working environment for our employees, and along with our franchisees, continue to make investments in training programs that uphold safe environments for customers and crew members. In addition to training, McDonald's maintains stringent policies against violence in our restaurants."
However, along with the violent incidents, the victims' lawsuit also claimed that McDonald's fails to provide proper safety training to managers and employees of its establishment. In August, the fast-food chain announced a new anti-harassment and safe-workplace training program. However, the plaintiffs claimed that they have not yet received this training. With the help of Fight for $15, the plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit. The movement continues to put more pressure on the company to emphasize workers' safety.
For now, the lawsuit seeks to create a court order to block McDonald's remodeling project. McDonald's began its remodel project last year. The project consisted of upgrading their stores costing about $6 billion. This year alone about 1,500 restaurants have been upgraded and McDonald's plans to upgrade about 2,000 more stores by the end of the year. McDonald's chose not to comment about the continuation of the project. J.R. Roberts, president of J.R. Roberts Security Strategies, stated that McDonald's ignored known ways of protecting workers. "There are security windows that could be used that would prevent physical contact," Roberts said, pointing to a recent incident in Virginia where a worker was reportedly beaten by two McDonald's patrons who pulled the employee through a drive-thru window.