Pune incident not the only case of rudeness of McDonald's staff

There has been a lot of discussion and debate in the media about a street child being denied entry into a McDonalds outlet in Pune. Though this is being viewed as an isolated incident, the reality may be very different. dna correspondent Pooja Patel reveals she witnessed a similar scene in another McDonalds outlet in Mumbai.

The incident in question happened on the evening of December 31, at the McD outlet which is located outside Kandivali railway station in Mumbai. While passing by the store, I heard shouting, and saw a staff member of the outlet scolding a child who had climbed into the store (which is accessible by staircase). The staff member then held the child by his collar, dragged him down the stairs, took him through the back door of the outlet and the shut the door. A few minutes passed before both child and man emerged. The child was crying loudly and running away from the scene. When I asked him what happened, he said, “Mera gala dabaya" (He strangled me).

I confronted the staffer about this and demanded an explanation to which he replied, "He was troubling a customer". When I reproached him for physically assaulting the child, he reiterated that the child was harassing customers. He handed me his ID card and said he would continue to behave as he did, saying he did not care what action I took against him.

Why would anyone treat a 4-year-old child like this? What was his motive behind taking the child to the back door? And what happened behind the shut door? All these were questions that immediately plagued my mind.  

I decided to take the matter up with McDonald’s and got a phone number from of a team member of the Corporate Communications department. When I called up this number, the receiver listened to me patiently, took down all the details and assured me that the matter would be taken up internally. This was on January 7.

However, I never received feedback. It was me who called up time and again to check on the case. Finally, on January 15, I received a call from Corporate Communications saying that an 'internal investigation' had taken place and the staff member had been 'warned'. But when asked about the staffer's version of the incident, the caller had no answer.

My experience was disappointing and I am unsure whether any real action was taken against the staffer for misbehaving with the child. The fact that the lady from corporate communications had no answer when asked about the staffer's version of events may suggest that the 'investigation' was either a sham or never took place. 

A street child was thrown out of the restaurant in Pune by a staff member on January 10, after allegedly saying that "these kind of people are not allowed here". But Pooja Patel's exerience shows that perhaps the kind of people who misbehave with 'these kind of people' may not be isolated to one outlet in Pune.