McDonald’s Workers Council
20 January 2022
Unite Union's McDonald's Workers Council is today identifying 68 McDonald's Restaurants that are being frequented by customers without Vaccine Passes being scanned.
McDonald’s Workers Council was sent a video of an unhappy customer proving how easy it was to enter a McDonald's Restaurant without having to show a vaccine pass.
Workers are concerned by ongoing company and franchisee failure to implement both government and company policy aimed at protecting us all from COVID-19. This is especially serious given there is a potential Omicron outbreak on the horizon.
McDonald's Worker's Council launched its first worker's COVID-19 Health & Safety Survey as a result of failure to take appropriate action in response to complaints and demands. These demands were to improve and fully implement COVID health and safety protocols since the very first lockdown in 2020.
In fact, the company did not even bother to reply to a recent request for trained professionals (security guards) to check passes instead of workers.
Survey respondents reported threats of extreme violence and racism when checking passes, with one in five respondents who had been assigned the task saying that they "felt unsafe" while doing so. Specific incidents are reported further down.
The following restaurants were identified as allowing customers to enter without having Vaccine Passes checked, thus threatening the safety of customers, workers and the efforts of our team of five million who have so far kept COVID-19 at bay.
McDonald's 5 Cross Roads
McDonald's Albany
McDonald's Anderson Bay
McDonald's Balmoral
McDonald's Bank Street
McDonald's Basin Reserve
McDonald's Blenheim
McDonald's Britomart
McDonald's Cavendish Drive
McDonald's Clendon
McDonald's Dannevirke
McDonald's Dunedin North
McDonald's Eastgate Express
McDonald's Feilding
McDonald's Ferry Road
McDonald's Frankton
McDonald's Gisborne
McDonald's Glenfield
McDonald's Hawera
McDonald's Henderson
McDonald's Hillmorton
McDonald's Hornby
McDonald's Huntly
McDonald's Invercargill South City
McDonald's Johnsonville
McDonald's Kaikohe
McDonald's Kamo
McDonald's Lambton Quay
McDonald's Levin
McDonald's Lower Hutt
McDonald's Lunn Ave
McDonald's Manners Mall
McDonald's Manukau City
McDonald's Marshland
McDonald's Massey Rd Mangere
McDonald's Masterton
McDonald's Merivale
McDonald's Motueka
McDonald's Mt Wellington
McDonald's Napier
McDonald's Nelson
McDonald's New Plymouth Bell Block
McDonald's Oamaru
McDonald's Ormiston
McDonald's Otahuhu
McDonald's Otara
McDonald's Palmerston North Plaza
McDonald's Papamoa
McDonald's Paraparaumu
McDonald's PN Princess St
McDonald's Porirua
McDonald's Quay St
McDonald's Raumanga
McDonald's Ravenswood
McDonald's Riccarton Rd
McDonald's Rolleston
McDonald's Rotorua Fairy Springs
McDonald's Royal Oak
McDonald's Silverstream
McDonald's Taupo
McDonald's Tauranga
McDonald's Thames
McDonald's Ti Rakau Dr
McDonald's Timaru Evans St
McDonald's Upper Hutt
McDonald's Westgate
McDonald's Tokoroa
McDonald's Mana
Approximately half of the respondents reported that customers were being allowed to enter their workplace without having their Vaccination Passes scanned first, despite workers being laid off without redundancy just before Christmas if they themselves did not show proof of vaccination.
4 out of 10 respondents reported trainee crew members being tasked with checking Vaccination Passes.
Reports of specific "serious incidents with aggressive customers because of Vaccination Pass checking" included
"a truck driver had threatened to drive his truck through the store"
"Being sworn at and threatened"
"Customer threatened to come back and shoot us"
"Verbal abuse toward staff. Fake coughing and sneezing toward staff. Left building and started kicking her car. Came thru drive thru and abused staff."
"Customer got aggressive and then threw his bike at crew on door."
"customers knocking over cones, the protective stand and other minor things as they storm out of the store after we tell them that we cannot serve them."
"not checking last 2 days. One of my mates is in there almost daily and had only been checked once."
"Guy got angry about not having his pass and then upon leaving he punched the window walking past could have been one of us, a another guy on the same day got angry and threatened one of the workers"
"No one checks passes after 9pm until closing as there is not enough staff on and the managers don't care"
"People get annoyed and i have seen people throw things"
"Even tried to get physically violent with one of our staff member. We are asked to keep experienced staff at the booth to check passes but it can happen with anyone and we are really short staffed"
"we are not provided with any specific crew who can check the vaccine passes due to staff shortage."
"an incident where I asked a lady for her vaccine pass and she sighed (seemingly agitated) and said “I’ve never had to do this at the other maccas"
"Understaffing means getting food out is more important than checking passes"
McDonald's Worker's Council calls on McDonald's and its franchisees to
- Engage professional trained security staff to check vaccine passes
- Ensure that nobody enters our workplaces without being verified as appropriately vaccinated
- Start paying Living Wages to all their workers on the front line of our collective response to COVID-19.
Unite will support any union members who refuse to check vaccine passes.
A follow up survey will be conducted soon. Specific McDonald’s restaurants and the franchisees that own and operate them will be identified.
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McDonald’s Worker's Council
Written 20/1/2022