STAFF at the McDonald's restaurant in a Kent city hosted the Change the Definition tour, to rally support for altering the dictionary definition of McJob.

The company has launched a public petition on behalf of its 67,000 employees and their colleagues in the service sector calling for the UK's dictionary houses to reconsider the existing McJob definition of "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, especially one created by the expansion of the service sector".

The Change the Definition tour involved an open day at the St George's Street restaurant at Canterbury, with a specially designed van that can display digital films and images.

This showed a film featuring McDonald's employees telling their own stories of what McJob means to them. The tour is now visiting McDonald's restaurants in 40 towns and cities across the UK over 23 days.

Paul Crocker, franchisee of the Canterbury restaurant, said: "The McJob definition is out of date, out of touch with reality and most importantly insulting to the hard-working, committed and talented people who serve the public every day."

Becky Hill, 26, first assistant to the business manager at Canterbury McDonald's, said: "I was 16 when I started to work as a crew member, part-time.

"Following a stint on a teacher training degree course I was offered the opportunity to stay and work at McDonald’s and receive training. I felt the prospects with the company were just as good as being a teacher and I’m still here after all this time."

McDonald's has also been awarded a place in the Financial Times 50 Best Workplaces rankings in 2007.