TIME’S UP

25 Workers File Sexual-Harassment Claims Against McDonald’s

The allegations include claims of lewd comments by supervisors, indecent exposure, groping, and propositions for sex.

Twenty-five McDonald’s employees on Tuesday came forward with new sexual-harassment complaints against the company. The plaintiffs announced 20 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints, three civil-rights lawsuits, and two other lawsuits in coordination with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund. The accusations involve lewd comments by supervisors, indecent exposure, groping, and propositions for sex in at least 20 cities across the U.S. “These brave McDonald’s workers, some only 16 or 17 years old at the time of the harassment, allege a wide range of unacceptable behavior at McDonald’s,” said Eve Cervantes, an attorney representing the women. Latarsha Smith, an employee at a McDonald’s in South Carolina, told reporters that the restaurant “went from being my second home to my personal hell” once she was routinely subjected to “physical, verbal, and sexual advances” from her boss.