McDonald’s

Corporate Crime

SOCI 1005A- Assignment #2 By: Ahmad Hamdalla December 3, 2014 Established in the United States in 1955, McDonald’s is a transnational corporation which rapidly expanded into the leading global food service retailer with 35,000 locations in more than 100 countries (About McDonald’s, 2014). The corporation is dedicated to providing high quality food and service at a fairly reasonable price. McDonald’s has estimated revenue of $24 billion making it the 90th largest economy in the world. (Business Insider, 2014). McDonald’s manages health and safety regulations by providing rules and guidelines that aid with creating a safe and healthy workplace (McDonald’s, 2014). McDonald’s aims to minimise and eliminate risks to health and safety by identifying work place hazards, complying with the law, setting targets and goals to support continuous health and safety improvement, provide proper training to employees to ensure safe work, and to provide clear and appropriate health and safety information to the employees and the consumers (McDonald’s, 2014). Workplace Health and Safety rules and procedures are important for the well being of the employer, employee, and consumers. For the employer and employee, it results in less turnover rate and absenteeism, improved morale and productivity, which results in a better company image and culture that satisfies the consumers. Health and safety programs are critical for preventing injury or illness in the workplace. Every business faces the risk of possible injury or damage to someone’s health and well being. Sometimes, no matter how much a company tries to prevent these damages from occurring, they still happen. For example, like many huge corporations, McDonald’s has been involved in a number of lawsuits and legal cases. The McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit is arguably one of the cases that had the most attention from the public. In February 1992, Stella Liebeck 79 years old at the time, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car when she suffered third degree burns caused by McDonalds’ scalding coffee after spilling it on her lap (Lectlaw, 2014). She was hospitalized for 8 days being treated for the burns over 16 percent of her body, in which 6 percent were classified as third degree burns. McDonald’s corporate policy orders employees to serve their coffee at a temperature between 180 and 190 degrees, 30 degrees higher than at-home coffee machines, and was more likely to cause serious injuries than coffee served at other establishments. Initially, the court decided to compensate her by $2.7 million in punitive damages. Later, the amount was reduced to $640,000 before the final pay out was settled discreetly. McDonald’s admitted to having at least 700 complaints for their coffee, and also admitted that it did not warn it’s consumers about the possible risks involved in spilling their coffee (Dailymail,2014). She reached a confidential agreement with McDonald’s in which the details have not been revealed until today, despite the

fact that this was a public case subjected to extensive media reporting. Even though their product has caused serious injury to some if it’s customers, McDonald’s has made no changes to the temperature at which McDonald’s serves its coffee because it conforms to industry standards. In another case, McDonald’s was being sued $1 billion after admitting that they use beef in the fries. A group of Hindus, who do not eat beef for religious reasons, filed the lawsuit claiming that they were deceived into believing that the fries are vegetarian. As a result to this dispute, McDonald’s has agreed to donate $10 million to Hindu and other groups who were affected by this misconception (CBS News, 2014). In a similar case, Jamie Oliver, a TV chef, discovered that ammonium