Cops raid McDonald’s, arrest illegal workers

McDonald’s suspends contracts with cleaning firms the day after 30 illegal cleaning staff are arrested in night-time raid

Police raided several branches of the fast-food restaurant McDonalds on Tuesday night as part of an investigation into the use of illegal cleaning staff.

The majority of the 30 people who were arrested in the raids at McDonald’s restaurants on the islands of Zealand, Lolland and Falster were illegal workers who did not hold Danish passports.

On Wednesday, McDonald’s, together with its franchise owners, chose to suspend contracts with two Copenhagen-based cleaning companies.

“In agreement with our franchise owners, we decided to immediately suspend our co-operation with the two cleaning firms,” Sara Helweg-Larsen from McDonald’s Denmark told Fredriksborg Amts Avis. “This is because we have a very clear policy in that we set the same high demands on our suppliers when they hire their staff as we do with our own.”

Helweg-Larsen explained that the cleaning companies were hired by the individual franchise operators, and not the company itself.

The raid was co-ordinated by several police departments, including North Zealand Police, Middle and West Zealand Police, South Zealand and Lolland-Falster Police, Copenhagen Vestegn Police as well as Swedish police forces. The illegal workers came from Ghana, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A 44-year-old ringleader was also arrested separately at an address in north Zealand.

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