Twenty-five workers at branches of McDonald’s in two states in Brazil claim they have faced racism and sexual harassment. Photograph: Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty Images

Racism and harassment towards McDonald's in Brazil is being investigated

Marcelo is one of the employees at McDonald’s branch in São Paulo. It was a busy day at McDonald’s and he was struggling to keep up with demand until the shift boss called him a “damned stupid blackie”.

Marcelo wanted to get some justice so he protested and said he would pursue legal action for racism. Instead of getting what he deserves to get, he got fired the next day.

Marcelo is one of 25 individual allegations of racism and sexual harassment found in two of Brazil’s 26 states. The investigation was due to be publicized on Tuesday for the first time. Furthermore, there are 23 new sexual harassment complaints were announced at the same time as Brazil’s labor prosecutor announced the investigation. The complaints were posted in the US by the Time’s Up Legal defense fund, formed to boost the #MeToo movement and the American Civil Liberties Union.

According to Alessandro Vietri, a lawyer for the labor union, there are a lot of cases involving sexual harassment and racism because of the quantity, there must be something wrong. With a company this large, the authorities need to think about collective rights.