They were fired for having the skin black, and work meant dealing daily with racial names, sexual harassment and discriminatory treatment. These are the accusations brought to McDonalds by former workers in a new shameful lawsuit the fast food restaurant might be facing.

Ten former employees at three different McDonalds restaurants in western Virginia, filed a lawsuit against the company, in the district court on Thursday, with the accusation that the fast food restaurant has fired dozens of black people just for the reason of their skin color.

Apparently, the highest managers had told employees that the restaurant was “to dark” and they needed to kick the ghetto out of the place, stated a news release which was announcing the lawsuit.
Former employees also complained about the supervisors racists attitude towards them. They had named one of the McDonalds restaurants “the ghetto store” and were all the time throwing racial words and names, would harass female workers and would punish colored workers for meaningless mistakes, that were overlooked if done by a white employee.

Even though it sounds surreal, that such racist attitudes are still, alive, it is sad but true to admit that racism is still out there, declared Rev. Kevin Chandler, president of the Virginia NAACP, which is taking the side of the employees in the lawsuit.
The NAACP from South Boston will support the fired black employees until McDonalds will respond to the inhumane environment, those person had to deal with, daily while working there.

A McDonalds spokesman stated that their company is built on race diversity of employees and customers and any kind of discrimination is against their values.

The new lawsuit is related also to the workers movement against the business model of the restaurant. Around 90% of the McDonalds restaurants are owned independently and the main company, McDonalds doesn’t get involved in the policy and day to day situations.

Wether McDonalds s liable as a corporation for the actions of the store owners, has been debated in court over the last year. A counsel for the NRLB, ruled that McDonalds could be called a “joint employer” on the lawsuits filed against any of its franchises.
There have been a series of complaints from employees over the last years. Workers complained that they were forced to work off the clock, their overtime was not paid and the company refused to pay for their uniforms. Other complaints from December, state that the restaurant had illegally punished its workers for participating in protests.
Image Source: Chicago Tribune