OKU Staff Alleges Discrimination At McD's As Colleagues Refer To Him By Numbers, Not Name

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Facebook user Muhammad Hanis shared that his younger brother Aniq, who is dyslexic, works at a McDonald's outlet in Senawang, Seremban.

Normally, their parents would take care of matters relating to his brother's work, such as his schedule and transportation to and from work.

At 10am on 13 February, Aniq's phone buzzed with WhatsApp notifications from his manager who was asking why Aniq wasn't at work yet because his shift started at 9am. Perplexed, his father replied that his son's name wasn't in the schedule and that's why he wasn't at work.

The purported manager texted back saying that they did list Aniq down for the 9am shift but had written his staff ID instead of his name. 

The reason? 

"People listen to instructions, numbers don't. They're a little stupid," the person wrote back.

Hanis' post published on Wednesday, 16 February, has since garnered over 14,000 shares on Facebook.

After numerous calls, the manager did not pick up. Hanis even called the McDonald's outlet but a worker there said the manager was on leave, angering Hanis even more.

In the post, he wrote that he just could not tolerate anybody who treated people this way, especially towards people with disabilities.

Then, in a series of messages in the McDonald's WhatsApp group, Hanis made his disappointment towards the ill-treatment of his brother clear.

He also rang the store again but, this time, another manager named Nor answered. From their conversation, Hanis discovered that all OKU employees are identified by their staff ID numbers, leaving him stunned.

"We are able to confirm that the behaviour of the specific restaurant manager was unacceptable and in violation of our McDonald's policy on diversity and inclusion. Appropriate action will be taken against the individual," said the statement dated 17 February.

McDonald's Malaysia also noted that it has reached out to Aniq's family to apologise sincerely over the incident and to resolve the matter.

"The said crew member is a valued staff who has been with McDonald's for four years," it goes on to say.

"As a people-oriented company, we strive to provide an inclusive work environment and promote a culture that allows our people to grow and build harmonious relationships as members of the McFamily."

According to Hanis, the operations manager responsible for the Melaka and Negeri Sembilan stores contacted his mother by phone to apologise and inform that appropriate action has been taken against the manager involved in the incident.

However, Hanis felt that it should not have been done over the phone but through a meeting with both parties instead.

The representative also did not specify what kind of action was taken against the said manager, nor did they guarantee that there was any disciplinary measures taken.

On top of that, the person at the other end of the line seemed "indifferent", thus, Hanis questioned why they contacted his mother instead of Hanis himself, who had created the post on Facebook in the first place.

He said that the matter has been resolved after the meeting at 2.30pm.

Hanis added that his family has accepted the apology from the McDonald's store and highlighted several other related issues, which the company has also taken note of and will take follow-up action on.

He hopes that issues like this will not recur to people in the OKU community in the future.