(7 October 2016) With its golden arches and its happy-go-lucky image, McDonald’s one the world’s biggest restaurant chains has worked hard at projecting a family friendly image, but behind this jolly façade lies a very different story. As highlighted in today World Day of Decent Work campaign, supported by EPSU and the ETUC, the poor pay and conditions in McDonald’s restaurants means its workers are far from loving it. Nor are ordinary taxpayers in Europe, who are picking up the bill for McDonald’s tax dodging.
Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU Secretary General says: EPSU has long been vocal on tax justice issues because we believe that fair taxes mean better public services. We welcome this latest move by the Commission in redressing some of the worst abuses of corporate tax dodging.
The European Commission recently launched a formal probe into McDonald’s tax dealings. The company is currently subject to legal proceedings in France for allegedly using tax planning to reduce workers’ share of profits. McDonald’s hides behind its complex system of franchises and royalties to cover up its dodging tax practices and it uses the same franchising system to claim it can’t ensure a living wage for all its workers.
While McDonald’s has enough control of its franchises’ supply chains to offer all customers cage-free eggs and has expressed a determination to ensure that antibiotics are completely absent from all its chicken products, the food giant claims to be unable to guarantee that its workers receive a living wage within that same franchising system.
In backing the World Day of Decent Work campaign EPSU and the ETUC are convinced that Europe needs a pay rise, which would benefit workers and their families throughout Europe. The unions believe that franchises should be obliged to insist on decent pay and conditions and not just on the quality of good and services. A better Europe means companies like McDonald’s paying decent wages and paying their taxes.
Ester Lynch, Confederal Secretary General of the ETUC notes that: The days when companies made and sold their own products are disappearing. Today outsourcing, sub-contracting and franchising is increasingly common. It is the cause of much misery at work. Franchise agreements codify everything except the pay and conditions of workers leaving the workers vulnerable to a race to the bottom.
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