McDonald’s. Again. And it won’t be the last unless we change the law.

In the last few days, multiple outlets have carried the same story in different words, trade unions have accused McDonald’s UK of failing to properly tackle sexual harassment, and the UK Government’s National Contact Point (NCP) has agreed to look at a formal complaint and has offered mediation.

This matters not just because McDonald’s is a household name, but because this is what happens when a workplace problem is treated like a PR issue, instead of what it really is a safety issue.

A workplace where sexual harassment is widespread is not “unfortunate”. It is not “bad behaviour”. It is not “a few incidents”. It is a workplace culture failure and a failure employers are allowed to manage internally, behind closed doors, with little consequence unless survivors carry the burden of fighting it.

That’s what has to change.

The real scandal isn’t that harassment happens it’s how the system lets employers respond

The unions’ complaint alleges an ongoing pattern of gender-based violence and harassment, including failures to meaningfully prevent harm, protect workers, or engage properly with unions and civil society.

The complaint sits within the OECD Guidelines framework via the UK NCP process and importantly, accepting the complaint is not itself a finding. But mediation is now on the table.

Even when harassment is exposed, even when the evidence is serious, even when there is public attention — the system still defaults to “internal procedures” and “reputational management.” That’s why survivors so often feel like the process is designed to contain the problem, not solve it.

Why End Not Defend exists

Survivors report harassment
Employers investigate themselves
The focus becomes “risk management”
The perpetrator gets protected, moved, managed — or quietly allowed to remain
The worker is left isolated, forced out, or labelled “difficult”

End Not Defend calls for a simple principle: Employers should be required to prevent harm not manage scandals.

If sexual harassment became Health & Safety law, workplace culture would change — fast

Workplace culture doesn’t shift because a CEO makes a statement. It shifts when the rules change what employers must do, what they can be inspected for, and what they can be held accountable for.

If government recognised sexual harassment as a Health & Safety issue, it would trigger a completely different set of expectations.

1) Prevention becomes mandatory, not optional

Harassment prevention stops being “training when something goes wrong” and becomes a duty to identify risk factors and act before harm occurs.

That means real risk assessments, proper staffing and supervision, safe reporting routes, protection from retaliation; and clear consequences for management failure.

2) The burden shifts off the survivor

In a true safety model, the question isn’t “Can you prove what happened to you?” It becomes “What controls did the employer have in place and why did they fail?”

That shift alone would change everything.

3) Enforcement stops being polite and starts being real

A safety approach means inspection, enforceable actions, and sanctions when employers fail especially repeat offenders.

4) It becomes collective — not individual

Health & Safety is built for workforce solutions, union involvement, safety reps, consultation rights, and workplace-wide improvements.

That’s how you change culture, not by isolating individuals, but by changing the conditions that allow abuse to thrive.

HR can’t fix a safety crisis on its own

Some commentary frames this as a “warning shot for HR leaders” but we need to be clear this is bigger than HR.

HR departments often sit inside the same corporate pressure structure that prioritises brand reputation, legal exposure, franchise relations, and “quiet resolution”. That is exactly why we need independent enforcement and clear legal duties that cannot be avoided with internal processes.

The McDonald’s case shows why we need systemic change — not just corporate promises

We’ve already seen agreements and “improvements” announced in recent years and yet the allegations continue to surface. The truth many employers don’t want to admit is this culture doesn’t change because the company says it will. Culture changes when the law forces them to.

That’s why End Not Defend is campaigning for government to stop treating workplace sexual harassment as a private matter between worker and employer and start treating it as preventable workplace harm.

The choice in 2026: defend reputations, or end the harm

The government now has a choice. It can continue with a system where the default response is mediation, procedures, “lessons learned”, and another policy refresh or it can recognise what working people already know: sexual harassment is a workplace hazard. And hazards are supposed to be prevented not endured.

That’s the change End Not Defend exists to win.

What we’re calling for

End Not Defend is campaigning for legal reform that would:

recognise workplace sexual harassment as a Health & Safety issue
require employers to prevent harassment proactively
strengthen rights to union involvement and workplace accountability
end the culture of employers defending perpetrators to protect themselves

Because if we don’t change the law, the next headlines won’t be about McDonald’s. They’ll be about another employer. Another workplace. Another survivor forced to carry the cost.

Get involved

If you want to support the campaign, follow End Not Defend and help build pressure for a legal duty that finally forces workplace culture to change.

End it. Don’t defend it.

Sources (for reference),

BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2e1g17drr2o