"We were expecting industrial action outside five of our restaurants today, 1^st May, in total three people who were scheduled to work took industrial action – one employee in Manchester and two in Watford, out of our 120,000 person workforce. Other attendees, at Cambridge and Crayford, were protesters and not our employees officially striking.  

“While we are disappointed, given our focus on putting people at the heart of our business, we are reassured that the number of our people involved is very low and an extremely small proportion of our IE workforce of 120,000.

“It is also regrettable that during this process, we have had reports of intimidation of our people from activists. That is not behaviour we tolerate under any circumstances and we intend to investigate this further.

“We take the interests and wellbeing of our people very seriously and encourage anyone to speak up if they ever have any concerns. Our people can talk to our managers and raise issues informally, or more formally through our grievance procedure, and this is our preferred route to dealing with issues relating to our workforce.  We remain committed to our people and their wellbeing at work.

“The strike action relates to pay and contracts. Over the last three years, we have taken a number of additional steps to ensure McDonald’s IE remains a great place to work.  Since September 2015, we have made three significant pay moves, and to maintain the many benefits we offer, from the great training, and development opportunities, to payment of overnight premiums, which so many businesses have taken from their people in recent times.

“As promised last year, everyone has now been offered a minimum guaranteed hours contract.  Despite this, around 80% of our people have selected to stay on flexible contracts because they value the opportunity to fit their work around their other commitments.”