McDonald’s bans all unaccompanied youths under 18 after 5pm due to attacks on staff
- Restaurant in Lord Street, Liverpool recently banned young people
- The chain said new policies were due to ‘verbal and physical abuse’ against staff
- A McDonald’s spokesperson said there was a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on abuse
A fast food restaurant rejects all young people under the age of 18 in the evenings because of a wave of attacks on staff.
The temporary ban on unaccompanied minors under the age of 18 entering the restaurant after 5pm recently came into effect at McDonald’s in Liverpool’s Lord Street.
Restaurant owners confirmed this was due to staff being subjected to what they describe as “verbal and physical abuse.”
McDonald’s in Lord Street, Liverpool has banned unaccompanied under-18s from the restaurant
A customer told Manchester Evening News they had heard a guard briefing a young man about the new policy.
They said, “As I was leaving, the guard stopped a man he believed to be a teenager and told him they were not allowed to allow people under 18 into the restaurant after 5pm without an adult with them.”
The customer had also witnessed the move of “large groups of children” the night before from a nearby cinema and park nearby.
A McDonald’s spokesperson said they have a “zero tolerance policy” against abuse of their staff.
They added: ‘Over the past few weeks we have seen an increase in incidents of antisocial behavior in the area where our people were verbally and physically abused.
“This decision was not taken lightly and we are working closely with the police to find a solution and help reduce these incidents.”
The fast food chain said the ban is due to the “verbal and physical abuse” of its staff.
A survey last year by the retail trade union Usdaw shows that more and more employees are being abused and that the problem is ‘endemic’.
Nearly nine in 10 store employees said they had been the victim of verbal abuse, with 60 percent reporting threats of physical assault and 9 percent saying they had been physically assaulted.
Elsewhere, 400,000 violent incidents were reported in convenience stores, more than 10,000 of which involved a weapon.
The shocking numbers came from a survey of 2,700 employees conducted in 2021.