It seems that hot coffee is far from the only impetus for McDonald’s being sued. Recently, one of its franchisees in Victoria sued McDonald's Restaurants of Canada. The reason? The franchisor ended the franchise relationship after allegations that the franchisee had chosen temporary foreign employees over Canadian hires. There is a federally-regulated program in Canada that prevents such practices, and franchisors like McDonald’s can also choose to take their own disciplinary actions.
However, rather than hold a hearing with the franchisee over the allegations, McDonald’s Canada terminated the franchise agreement. Franchisees Glen Bishop and Nasib Services claim doing so was unjust, and has cost them millions of dollars.
An Unequal Employer?
After complaints that three Victoria McDonald’s locations owned by the husband and wife team were hiring foreign workers and turning away local job candidates, the government quickly researched the allegations and forbid the franchisees from being able to hire workers abroad. The couple was put on a blacklist of employers who have broken the rules of the temporary foreign program.
At that point, McDonald’s Canada, who initiated its own review of the use of temporary foreign workers at locations nationwide as a result of this situation, terminated the relationship with the Victoria franchisees. The couple, however, claims that while other franchises were found to have breached the policy of not hiring foreign workers, no others had been terminated as franchisees.
In Canada, there are approximately 3,400 temporary foreign workers out of a total of 85,000 McDonald’s employees. For each foreign worker, the franchisor and franchisee pay international recruiting firms as much as $2,000 per worker. There are concerns, of course, that these workers, who may be willing to work for lower wages and accept subpar working conditions, are taking the jobs of Canadians who need them.
Getting Reprieve...Too Late?
After all of the kerfuffle, Glen Bishop and Nasib Services received a letter from Employment Minister Jason Kenney’s office stating that the accused franchises had not broken the rules of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. Unfortunately for the franchisees, the vindication comes too late. The case is in court, and McDonald’s Canada has not filed a response.
Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Communications, a marketing firm specializing in content writing and social media management. She’s written three business books, including How to Get More Customers With Press Releases, and frequently blogs about small business and marketing on sites including Forbes, AllBusiness, The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and Tweak Your Biz. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.