Workers: McDonald's Told Us to Put Mustard on Burns

Instead of being offered burn cream, McDonald's workers who suffered severe burns on the job were asked if they wanted mustard or ketchup on that, according to recently filed safety complaints. In some of the 28 safety complaints filed in 19 states over the last couple of weeks with the help of the Fight for $15 labor group, workers say McDonald's restaurants were short of first-aid kits and other safety equipment, reports the Guardian. The workers say conditions were made even more unsafe by pressure to work too fast and a lack of proper training on dealing with things like grease traps, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The complaints say condiments like ketchup or mayonnaise—but apparently not special sauce—were suggested as treatment when workers suffered burns.

“My managers kept pushing me to work faster, and while trying to meet their demands I slipped on a wet floor, catching my arm on a hot grill," a McDonald's worker in Chicago tells the Guardian. "The managers told me to put mustard on it, but I ended up having to get rushed to the hospital in an ambulance." The organizing director of Fight for $15 accuses McDonald's of turning a blind eye to safety issues while closely monitoring everything else about franchisee operations. And it's not just McDonald's: According to a Hart Research survey, a third of fast-food workers who suffered a burn injury on the job say managers suggested using condiments as treatment, the BBC reports. (Last month, a therapy kangaroo was kicked out of a McDonald's in Wisconsin.)