This Thursday, Elise Lucet and her Cash Investigations team presented their latest investigation into McDonald’s. Led by Zoé de Bussière, journalist for France 2, it will take you into the mysteries of the fast-food giant. As usual, the documentary is extremely documented and researched. It is also very damning for the American brand.
Employment contracts that circumvent the law
In order to best fit into the company, the Cash Investigation team infiltrated Rebecca, a journalist from the show. Objective: live the McDonald’s experience from the inside. And she was not disappointed. First of all, the false collaborator hopes to work full-time. Finally, she is only hired part-time.
In France, the minimum duration of this type of contract is 24 hours. However, the giant only offers him a 15-hour contract. In reality, Rebecca was forced to sign a document by management. This is a “voluntary derogation” which stipulates that it must also be available to the brand for a minimum of 60 hours per week. Which is also prohibited. As Sophie Le Gall explains in the debrief of the show. “No, it is not illegal to have part-time contracts. What is illegal is to impose a contract with such a small number of hours on an employee who would like to work more, making people believe that it is at his request.”
Appalling working conditions
On France Info, Elise Lucet said she was shocked by the working conditions of the employees. “During the rush, the person who takes care of the fries can lift 300kg of fries over two or three hours. You can imagine what that can do to a body”, she denounced. She also explains how the idea for this survey came about.“We had recordings of McDonald’s employees who were fired from McDonald’s headquarters. We found the group’s managerial policy very bizarre, they were fired in a snap with astonishing words like: ‘we blame you for ‘taking your mug and your flower pot from your office the day you left’, ‘you didn’t say hello to me in the hallway’ and we wanted to investigate.”
During the report, a former restaurant manager describes the appalling conditions. “I had aggressive management. That’s what I was taught to do: put pressure. A teammate you don’t put pressure on, a teammate who isn’t afraid of you, he don’t respect yourself. That’s the values I’ve been taught for years. There was crying, shouting, fighting. You put so much pressure on yourself that you’re tense for all the rush.” Plus, working in so many rushes with understaffing is the norm.
Children, the heart of the target
There, Cash Investigation kicks in an open door. But their way of working with children remains challenging. “If you come to Mc Donald’s as a child, you will also come when you are an adult with your own children.“Explains in particular Roy Bergold, director of the group for several decades. Indeed, everything is done so that the children adhere to the project: to eat as many hamburgers as possible over time.
The children’s menu is thought out from all sides with its stylized box and its gift inside. But that’s not all. Influencers are paid to test new products or share videos or children open boxes that contain new products. In short, McDonald’s is always one step ahead and moves very well with the times.
In France, 1,400 restaurants sell around 2 million meals every day. A machine. In Belgium, the company claims that there is “101 restaurants, managed by 24 franchisees, as well as more than 5,000 employees who serve 69,000 meals a day.” A success that is certainly not due to Elise Lucet. “In my life I had to eat there five times. It was during filming, where there was nothing else and I had no choice,” she said in Buzz TV . So she never took her daughter to the burger giant. “When she was old enough to understand, I told my daughter that I would never take her to McDo and Disney. Other people took her. She liked it, but she appreciates it less and less .” We understand better why.