Safe & Respectful Workplaces
We believe we all have a responsibility to protect the health and safety of employees and anyone who enters a McDonald’s-brand restaurant.
We are committed to prioritizing safety in all our offices and Company-owned restaurants around the world, as well as supporting our Franchisees in doing the same in the restaurants they own and operate. Across restaurants globally, we are working together with our Franchisees in continuing to foster respectful workplaces, where people can be themselves without fear of harassment, discrimination, retaliation or violence.
Our Strategy
Our commitment to respecting the health and safety of people is incorporated in our policies, codes of conduct and guiding principles.
- Global Statement of Principles on Workplace Violence (PDF – 144 KB)
- Global Statement of Principles Against Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation (PDF – 272 KB)
Find all of our human rights policies and standards on our dedicated Human Rights page.
Implementing Standards and Assessing Compliance
McDonald’s introduced Global Brand Standards to help foster safe, respectful and inclusive workplaces that protect the physical and psychological safety of all crew and customers. The standards apply across all restaurants – more than 40,000 locations. All Company-owned and franchised restaurants must implement these standards and are assessed on each criterion in accordance with the applicable McDonald’s market’s business evaluation processes. These standards focus on four key areas:
- Protecting employee health and safety.
- Preventing workplace violence (e.g., having policies in place and communicating those to employees, conducting workplace violence prevention training and having reporting mechanisms in place for employees to report concerns).
- Preventing harassment, discrimination and retaliation (e.g., having policies in place and communicating those to employees, conducting training and having reporting mechanisms in place for employees to report concerns).
- Listening through restaurant employee feedback (e.g., conducting employee surveys and creating corresponding action plans).
We remain committed to supporting markets and franchised restaurants by providing implementation support, including a suite of policies, tools and training. In 2021, we supplemented existing respectful workplace training with a new global eLearning module, “Building a Safe, Respectful and Inclusive Workplace,” on preventing harassment, discrimination and retaliation. This training for crew and managers was made available in multiple languages and offered optionally to Franchisees and Developmental Licensees (DLs) in 2022 to help them meet the Global Brand Standards requirement in every restaurant. We also offer a suite of workplace violence prevention training to Franchisees and DLs in all global markets.
Throughout the roll-out of the Global Brand Standards, Franchisees have shared feedback as part of our efforts to ensure the implementation resources being provided are clear, useful and effective. Our Franchisees have shared examples of how the program has further strengthened their knowledge and understanding of these topics, and provided them with a stronger ability to take action and respond in real-life scenarios when needed. Hearing from Franchisees has also helped identify opportunity areas for the program, which has supported McDonald’s in making continuous improvements to support a more successful implementation process. Some of these improvements include enhancements to technology and reporting, additional education and communications, and updates to optional resources for our Franchisees.
Our Global Statement of Principles on Workplace Violence (PDF – 144 KB) and Global Statement of Principles Against Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation (PDF – 272 KB) outline requirements for all Company-owned restaurant and Corporate Staff. These include expectations on workplace conduct, manager responsibilities, employee resources and investigation processes. They are also provided for optional use by Franchisees and DLs based on location and circumstances.
Find all of our human rights policies and standards on our dedicated Human Rights page.
Workplace Health and Safety
Guided by our mission and values, McDonald’s is committed to fostering a safe working environment for all restaurant employees and safe restaurant experiences for all our valued guests in every market that we operate in.
McDonald’s ongoing effort to elevate safety standards and procedures is informed by regulations, and from additional guidance from health ministries in the countries where we operate, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other health, safety and science experts.
McDonald’s has also deployed restaurant-level health and safety standards, including a market-level safety assessment process to evaluate these standards. Health and safety assessments are conducted annually across all McDonald’s restaurants to support a culture of safety.
