Teamsters Local 237 Welfare Fund, Teamsters Local 237 Supplemental Fund for Housing Authority Employees and Teamsters Local 237 Additional Security Fund, all in New York, filed a lawsuit against McDonald's Corp., Chicago, demanding the company provide records related to the company's awareness of sexual harassment and other allegations.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington, demands an "inspection of McDonald's books and records" related to harassment charges throughout the company since 2006. According to the filing, McDonald's in May rejected the Teamsters funds' demands to inspect books and records for reports of sexual harassment and related misconduct.
McDonald's terminated former CEO Steve Easterbrook in November for cause for having a romantic relationship with another employee and announced Monday it was suing Mr. Easterbrook seeking to claw back his severance compensation, the filing said.
As of Dec. 31, 2018, the Teamsters Local 237 Welfare Fund Pension Plan had $29 million in assets, according to the fund's most recent Form 5500 filing. Assets in other plans were not known.
McDonald’s said in an emailed statement: “We had been working cooperatively with the plaintiffs and had already offered to make documents available for inspection in response to their demand before they filed their lawsuit. We are not sure why the plaintiffs saw a strategic advantage to filing a lawsuit rather than continuing our discussions, but we will now respond to the lawsuit through the appropriate channels.”
