McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD) today saw the first strike to hit the company’s UK restaurants in a protest over pay and other issues.
Media reports said fourteen workers at McDonald’s restaurants in city of Cambridge and in Crayford, south of London, staged a strike to demand an increase in pay to £10 an hour, an end to so-called zero-hour contracts, and more trade union recognition.
A spokesman for McDonald‘s, quoted by Reuters, said the strikers represented less than half of the 33 union members who were balloted and the stated reason for the strike related to internal grievance procedures and not pay or contracts.
He also said the company and its franchisees were offering staff the option of a guaranteed hour contract but so far 86% of its employees had chosen to stay on flexible contracts.
A union representing the workers told Reuters that two managers in the chain’s Cambridge restaurant were suspended this year for bullying and harassment.
Monday’s action in the UK also coincides with strikes in the US and in Belgium.