McDonald's faces another lawsuit by workers claiming racial discrimination

For the fourth time in less than a year, former and current McDonald's employees have filed a complaint accusing the fast food giant of racial discrimination.

The civil rights suit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois - Rock Island, accuses managers at a local McDonald's of subjecting Black workers to racially derogatory terms and disparate treatment that resulted in them receiving harsher discipline, and fewer hours, than their white colleagues.

Also on Tuesday, an earlier complaint filed in July by Black employees of a Lakeland, Florida McDonald's was amended after two of the workers were fired – dismissals they said were retaliation for speaking up about their abusive work environment.

The Illinois suit's allegations are "symptomatic of a pattern or practice of McDonald’s corporate leadership’s failure to address pervasive racism and anti-Black sentiment throughout the organization,'' the complaint said, "from executives in

the C-suite, to individual managers at restaurants throughout the country.''

Slurs and slashed hours

The three current and former employees who filed the Illinois complaint said a white general manager and other supervisors often referred to Black workers as "ghetto'' and "lazy," among other abusive statements. 

And the general manager targeted Black employees when cutting shifts and hours this year, the suit claims.

“As a new mother, I started working at McDonald’s to provide a better life for my baby girl, but at work, I was subjected to harassment and discrimination,'' plaintiff Selynda Middlebrook said in a statement. Her work schedule was reduced to a single, roughly four-hour shift a week, paying her a total of $40. Middlebrook later quit. 

The lawsuit puts a spotlight on what many workers and labor advocates deem to be the hypocrisy of many corporations that have declared their support for the current national movement challenging systemic racism, yet fail to root out bigotry within their own organizations.   

"McDonald’s tweets saying Black lives matter can’t paint over its

failures to address racism in its stores,” Stephanie Stevens, another plaintiff in the Illinois case, said in a statement.

Lawsuits multiply

The fast food giant has faced allegations of racism at every level.

In September, 52 Black former McDonald’s franchisees filed suit in federal court saying they faced discrimination and were not given the same opportunities as their white peers. 

The group, who, collectively, operated more than 200 restaurants between 1988 and 2018, said the company directed them to stores in “economically depressed” and "dangerous locations” that cost more to run while producing lower sales.

McDonald's "just gave them crappy franchises with little likelihood of long-term survival,'' James Ferraro, the franchisees attorney,  told USA TODAY at the time of the filing.

And in January, two Black McDonald's executives filed a racial discrimination suit saying the company had discriminated against Black executives as well as Black franchisees.

McDonald's has also faced charges of sexual harassment. Its former CEO Steve Easterbrook, who was fired in November for having a "consensual'' relationship with an unnamed worker in violation of corporate policy, is now the focus of a lawsuit by the company alleging he had sexual relationships with three employees and conspired to conceal the evidence.

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In a July interview with USA TODAY, current CEO Chris Kempczinski said there was a bigger focus on diversity and inclusion in a recent update of the company’s values. 

"We need to continue to make progress on this, and as proud as I am about our history in diversity and inclusion, by no means are we complacent," Kempczinski said. "By no means would I say that the job is done."

Contributing: Mike Snider 

Follow Charisse Jones on Twitter @charissejones