700 McDonald's UK workers bring claims over bullying and discrimination

More than 700 current and former McDonald’s UK workers are now pursuing legal claims over bullying, sexism, homophobia, racism and ableism, turning a long-running allegations crisis into a major workforce problem for the chain. The cases, handled largely by Leigh Day, stretch across more than 400 restaurants and, in some accounts, more than 450 outlets, showing the complaints are not confined to one store, one franchisee or one region.

The scale matters because it points to a systems failure, not a one-off personnel dispute. Leigh Day said the claimants were junior workers, many aged 19 or younger when they worked at McDonald’s, and that they are not seeking one fixed payout. Instead, each claim will be assessed on its own facts, making the case a wide set of individual workplace harm claims rather than a single headline settlement fight.

The latest action builds on the BBC’s July 2023 reporting, which heard from more than 100 current and former UK workers, some as young as 17, who described sexual assault, sexual harassment, racism and bullying. That investigation documented 31 allegations of sexual assault and 78 of sexual harassment. McDonald’s UK chief executive Alistair Macrow apologized after those allegations surfaced and the company opened a specialist investigations unit.

Macrow later returned to the issue in a House of Commons Business and Trade Committee hearing, where he apologized again and said some of the testimonies were “quite horrifying.” He also told MPs that McDonald’s management receives around five bullying reports each week and that 29 workers had been fired over sexual harassment allegations.

The legal and regulatory pressure has kept building. McDonald’s had signed a legally binding agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission in February 2023 after the earlier allegations, and reporting in April 2026 said the commission’s work with McDonald’s on sexual harassment prevention was still ongoing. For crew members and shift managers, that means the company’s promised fixes are still under scrutiny, with questions remaining about whether training, reporting channels and investigations are reaching restaurant floors.

The broader concern is familiar to workers who have watched labor fights spread through the fast-food industry, from Fight for $15 campaigns over pay and scheduling to newer worries about automation and job security. McDonald’s has also faced large-scale harassment litigation in the United States, where two Florida employees filed a $500 million sexual harassment class action in 2020. In the UK, the newest claims suggest the brand’s biggest challenge may be culture itself, and whether a company built on consistency can keep workplace standards consistent enough to protect young and low-paid staff.