this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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UK Politics

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I can't speak for the bread factory. But most McDonald's are franchise locations and are run by people who don't work directly for the company using their own hr and payroll. While McD corp are not wholly absolved by that fact, the franchisee and their back office staff (which in my experience are often their own family and friends) will have almost certainly been aware of what was going on but been happy to have the slaves working there anyway.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's the whole point of the franchise system. The franchisees can basically only make money if they horrifically exploit people and the corporation can deny responsibility. This is not some aberration, this is how the system works.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yep, the franchise is supposedly an independent business, except they can't choose suppliers, can't change the menu, can't change prices, can't do their own marketing, etc. The only variable they have any control over is basically personnel, so that's where they try to save as much money as possible.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah sorry I meant that this McDonalds let them do this. I'm not an expert on labour laws in the UK but surely a 30 hour shift should be illegal, if it's not already

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Labour laws are often exploited in the UK around working hours, if you look at the care sector and the hours people regularly put in you'd be horrified.