Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsLatest: McDonald’s sues Steve EasterbrookClaims CEO had sexual relations with three employeesEarlier:Eat Out to Help Out helps the high streetFTSE 100 starts new week with a rallyChinese factory gate prices picked up last monthTrump’s executive orders also lift stocks 2.59pm BST McDonald’s lawsuit explains that it received allegations about Steve Easterbrook’s conduct in July (eight months after he had been dismissed over a consensual relationship with an employee)An investigation found evidence of sexual relationships with three other employees, including videos and photographs, the company alleges:In July 2020, the Company received an anonymous report alleging that a McDonald’s employee (“Employee-2”) engaged in a sexual relationship with Easterbrook while he was CEO.An internal investigation into this allegation discovered photographic evidence that, while he was CEO, Easterbrook had engaged in a physical sexual relationship not only with Employee-2, but also with two other Company employees in the year before his termination. That evidence consisted of dozens of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit photographs and videos of various women, including photographs of these Company employees, that Easterbrook had sent as attachments to messages from his Company e-mail account to his personal e-mail account. 2.42pm BST Fast food giant McDonalds is suing former CEO Steve Easterbrook for allegedly conducting “physical sexual relationships” with three employees, and misleading their board about them.Recently identified evidence shows that Easterbrook had physical sexual relationships with three McDonald’s employees in the year before his termination; that he approved an extraordinary stock grant, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, for one of those employees in the midst of their sexual relationship; and that he was knowingly untruthful with McDonald’s investigators in 2019.These actions constitute breaches of Easterbrook’s duties to McDonald’s. Had Easterbrook been candid with McDonald’s investigators and not concealed evidence, McDonald’s would have known that it had legal cause to terminate him in 2019 and would not have agreed that his termination was “without cause.” Accordingly, McDonald’s brings this action to redress the injuries it has suffered by virtue of Easterbrook’s fiduciary breaches and deceit.We recently became aware through an employee report of new information regarding the conduct of our former CEO, Steve Easterbrook. We now know that his conduct deviated from our values in different and far more extensive ways than we were aware when he left the company last year. While the Board made the right decision to swiftly remove him from the Company last November, this new information makes it clear that he lied and destroyed evidence regarding inappropriate personal behavior and should not have retained the contractual compensation he did upon his exit. As such, the Company, at the direction of the Board of Directors, has filed litigation to recover the compensation he retained upon his departure from McDonald’s and align his exit payout with a “for cause” termination.McDonald’s does not tolerate behavior from any employee that does not reflect our values. These actions reflect a continued demonstration of this commitment. Continue reading…
Via: McDonald’s sues former CEO over alleged relationships with staff – business live
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