McDonald's facing major backlash for weird requirement in restaurant's job ad

McDonald's has just revealed their new menu line up for the coming season, while axing 5 popular items this week including the Chicken Big Mac. Along with this, the fast-food giant is giving away free chicken nuggets this month to thousands of fans. But not all the news related to the giant corporation this month, has been good.

In fact, many McDonald's restaurants are in trouble after shocking revelations of serious child labour law violations in some states in the US. And now, as reported by 7News, a McDonald's restaurant in New Zealand is in hot waters due to some distasteful details in their job ad.

Here's what happened.

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McDonald's job ad slammed by people on the Internet

It all started when a McDonald's restaurant in Auckland posted a job advert asking for 'night owls,' to work from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM shifts at the restaurant.

A Redditor came across the ad, and noticed some disturbing details in the innocuous-looking ad. The restaurant asked for applications only from people aged 16-60 years old. The Redditor took to the forum r/Auckland to highlight the issue with the ad, posting a photo of the ad with the caption,

Work for Maccas Auckland as long as your not older than 60 years old!

Bruh I guess the retirement age in NZ in 60

The ad quickly attracted the ire of other people on the forum who slammed it as being ageist and bizarre.

One person commented on the work culture at McDonald's saying,

After working at McDonalds and it's a culture thing. Most branches would rather hire school kids so they can mistreat and exploit them. Saw it all the time

Another over 60s commenter stated,

I’m 60 and could easily do it.

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The McDonald's has amended its job ad after backlash

People were shocked by what some framed as overt discrimination on the part of the hiring restaurant. One person simply wrote,

Wow. Age discrimination at its best

Another wondered,

it is illegal to discriminate based on age for 60 year olds im guessing?

As reported by 7News, McDonald’s spokesman Simon Kenny told the New Zealand Herald that in fact, McDonald's corporation welcomes people of all ages to work, and the restaurant in question was mistaken in stating such an age limit. He says,

We’ve been made aware that a job ad by one of our franchisees has created some debate on social media like Reddit, as it references an age range of 16-60.

The reference in the copy was intended to illustrate that people of all ages are welcome. We’ve asked the franchisee to update the copy to avoid any potential confusion.

The problematic job listing has since been removed, and a new listing has been put in place which specifies equal job opportunity for all.

Sources used:

Reddit: r/Auckland

7News: 'McDonald’s slammed for ‘bizarre’ job ad labelled as ageist'

NZ Herald: 'Bizarre NZ McDonald’s job ad excluding over-60s ‘updated’ after backlash'