More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A Kent branch of McDonald's is one of three named in an undercover Sky News report alleging breaches of Covid restrictions.
Workers at the restaurants in Kent, Merseyside and Greater Manchester spoke out about their concerns over the chain's health and safety measures.
McDonald's restaurants are currently just offering drive-thru services but complaints over social distancing screens and checking staff temperatures have been raised.
Staff also said they were unable to wash their hands every 30 minutes.
There are three stores in Strood on Medway City Estate, Commercial Road and in Medway Valley Park.
One of the workers at the unnamed store told Sky News he was worried about his family catching Covid and he thought his managers were aware of how slack things had got.
He said: "I think they are very aware, they know no one is doing it. It gets very busy - we can't just walk away from our stations without being covered and if you can't walk away without being covered you can't go away and wash your hands.
"We are already in a very stressful time and I think it burns people out... it burns people out emotionally..."
"You can't go off to a sink - it's just making the environment to be extremely unsafe. There is just a lack of care, a lack of people giving thought to the rules and ignoring them frequently.
"There is nothing you can do at all, I don't think there is actually anyway to affect change - there's maybe one or two shifts where things do change but then you fall back into that pattern of the rules being ignored.
"I worry about my family getting COVID and you know it creates a lot of anxiety, it makes our lives very stressful - more stressful than they need to be. We are already in a very stressful time and I think it burns people out... it burns people out emotionally."
A McDonald's spokesperson said: "We continue to work hard with our franchisees and third party safety experts to ensure robust safety measures are in place and being followed, to help protect our people and customers.
"We have regularly reviewed and updated these procedures since the start of the pandemic. We are deeply concerned to hear this feedback, and while we are confident this relates to a very small number of the 130,000 people we employ across the UK & Ireland, we strongly believe that every one of our employees should feel safe within the workplace.
"We are investigating the issues raised as a matter of urgency, and strongly encourage any of our employees with concerns to raise these using the various channels we have in place."
