McDonald’s: Funniest Lawsuit Quote of the Week

January 27th, 2010. By AbiK

McDonald’s counsel has the material for a reality show on its hands—I’m convinced. Case in point #1, yesterday’s Totally Tortelicious. Case in point #2 is better though…the setting is a McDonald’s located in Lemmer, The Netherlands.

Apparently, a waitress sold a hamburger to a co-worker. After the transaction was complete—and that’s a key element here—the co-worker asked for some cheese. The waitress complied—thereby turning the HAMburger into a CHEESEburger. And you and I and every fool across the globe knows that a CHEESEburger costs more than a HAMburger. Even in a Happy Meal.

So the cheese-doling waitress was fired. Hey, 10¢ is 10¢ (I’m guessing). And if 100 waitresses did that, why, that would be $10 eating into Mickey D’s bottom line. Unacceptable.

Now, I don’t know why the waitress didn’t ask for the extra cash. Maybe there wasn’t a key on the register that said “Extra Cheese” that could be hit as a single transaction; or maybe she’d have to process a refund for the hamburger, get management’s authorization, and re-process the transaction as a cheeseburger. And maybe she did some quick math and realized it would cost the company more for her to invest her time in such a transaction (not to mention the cost of the paper receipts!) that she was actually trying to save the company a dime (no pun intended). Doubt it, but you never know.

Regardless, McDonald’s stance was based on some hard and fast company staff rules that prohibit free gifts to family, friends or colleagues. (Note to self, if offered slice of cheese as gift, drop friend). Rules are rules and the waitress had to go.

And then came the wrongful termination lawsuit.

And now the judgement: McDonald’s was ordered to pay the former waitress 4,200 euros—roughly $5,900—to cover the last five months of her employment contract.

And the funniest quote? The written judgement states the “dismissal was too severe a measure” followed by:

“It is just a slice of cheese.”

Tags: Cheese, Holland, McDonald's, Netherlands

This was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 12:51 pm and is filed under Employment . Feel free to respond, or trackback. Read our comments policy.