As talks break down between one of New Zealand’s largest fast food chains—McDonald’s—and the workers who operate it, employees throughout Auckland have gathered to protest wages and working hours at McDonald’s Queen St. location.
But those aren’t the only issues plaguing the fast food giant, according to employees on the picket line.
Sean Bailey, an employee at the chain’s Quay St. store (a franchise location) tells NZTV that his manager’s anti-gay harassment left him embarrassed and virtually unable to return to work. “One of my managers said, ‘if you act gay on my shift, I will discipline you.'”
Bailey was also asked on multiple occasions to change his voice because it sounded “too gay.” The manager in question continued to harass him, threatening “if you turn anyone else in the store gay, I will punish you and make you lose your job.”
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Bailey claims the manager was moved to a different location after delivering a forced apology.
“I think the punishment was unfair for something so serious,” he said. “Even though he had moved stores there’s nothing to stop him from doing the same thing somewhere else.”
A spokeswoman for McDonald’s responded with a standard copy/paste job from her entry-level PR 101 class:
“[McDonald’s] takes complaints of this nature very seriously. In this specific case the restaurant followed internal processes but due to privacy restrictions we cannot discuss the outcome.”
Dakotahgeo
Due to my policy restrictions, I can’t seem to remove my foot from your ASS because it’s caught on your vocal cords! A thousand apologies! Now swallow, dumb broad! I have hamburgers to fry!
Miranda
@Dakotahgeo: See, here’s the trouble. That message which McDonald’s put out was grossly insensitive and symptomatic of widereaching heterosexism and indifference to abuse and oppression.
…and then you decided that it would be funny to respond with “Now swallow, dumb broad!” and be a skin-crawling-ly creepy misogynist, which kindof isn’t actually helping.
Dakotahgeo
@Miranda: Miranda, I’ve been reading too many right wing blogs today and Starbucks coffee has been very strong. You are, of course, correct. Mea culpa.
jaack
HATE must be faced head on and must be shown for what it is. IGNORANCE, INTOLERANCE, STUPIDITY, and corporate insensitivity. Hit the McD’s bottom line and they will do something genuine about the intolerance. Let McD know gay money don’t buy hate-burgers!
Ogre Magi
Is he a Maori?
BritAus
New Zealand – and McDonalds – like here in Australia, have STRICT anti-discrimination laws/rules.
Not only can the management get fired, but Mr Bailey can sue and get thousands, way into the 5 digit mark.
DarkZephyr
The McDonald’s restaurants in Washington State are much better about LGBT issues. Its sad that this has happened after just a few weeks ago McDonald’s being in the news for supporting LGBT people.
chip_in_ga
In order for us to be accepted more easily and to affect changes in the way Gay persons are perceived it is more advantageous to promote our similarities rather than our differences. However, everyone should be free to be who/what they are. I would not want him waiting on me, and it has nothing to do with him being too gay. He needs a hair net!