Two former store managers at McDonalds came forward with new information to help fast food workers with their campaign to get a pay raise. Bloomberg said Lakia Williams and Kwanza Brooks revealed how the two made ways to help keep labor costs down at the stores they formerly managed.
The whistleblowers are part of an effort backed by Fast Food Forward, a worker advocacy group. The two former store managers claimed that they engaged in tactics such as asking workers to continue with their shifts once they have clocked out or doctoring time sheets by adding unpaid breaks. Williams, who previously worked at a McDonald's in Charleston, South Carolina, said that the steps were necessary in order for her to comply with her store's strict wage expenses goals.
In an interview, she said, "There was so much pressure. It's not only the franchisees group and the general managers, it is corporate. It's something internal, it's something deeper, and it's something that has been going on for years."
Brooks, who had worked at McDonald's stores in North Carolina and Maryland, also claimed that she resorted to amending time sheets to keep the stores' labor costs down.
Bloomberg said that the new allegations followed a string of lawsuits aimed at the fast food chain in March claiming that McDonalds had made workers idle without compensation for minutes to hours during slow periods, which is a violation of state and federal labor laws. Some of the complainants also said that the fast food chain had required them to pay for their own uniforms, which further reduces their already minimum pay.
In a response to the allegations of the ex-managers, McDonalds' stated that it takes action to resolve concerns about pay in its own restaurants and hopes that its franchise stores do the same.
McDonalds' spokeswoman Heather Oldani said, "McDonald's and our independent owner-operators share a concern and commitment to the well-being and fair treatment of all people who work in McDonald's restaurants. Whether employed by McDonald's or by our independent owner-operators, employees should be paid correctly."
