McDonald’s restaurant owners in Chicago must do more to enforce mask-wearing policies and better train their employees in social distancing, to come into compliance with Gov. JB Pritzker’s COVID-19 orders, a Cook County judge has ruled.
On June 24, Cook County Judge Eve Reilly sided with a group of McDonald’s restaurant workers, who are suing McDonald’s and the franchisees that employ them, accusing them of not doing enough to protect workers and customers from the risk of contracting COVID-19.
“McDonald’s has created an environment that leads employees, including managers, to believe they can take off their masks and stand within 6 feet of each other as long as they do not do so in excess of 10 minutes,” Judge Reilly wrote in her order. “This increases the health risk for the employees, their families and the public as a whole and conflicts with the Governor’s Order on social distancing potentially undoing any good it has done as we fight this incredibly contagious disease.”
The lawsuit has been pending since May, when the workers first filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court.
The complaint was based on the core accusation that McDonald’s and its franchisees failed to do enough to protect its workers from contracting and spreading the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 while on the job. That, they said, constituted a public nuisance, as the workers could then inadvertently spread the disease to customers and others within the community.
The case is one of several such public nuisance claims pending in courts over COVID-19 prevention measures, essentially using the public nuisance theory to target employers for not doing enough to staunch the spread of the illness during a time of pandemic.
In their complaint, the workers pressed for a court order that would require McDonald’s and its franchisees to provide workers with more face masks, gloves and hand sanitizer and to better implement policies to monitor worker infections and train employees to better prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Specifically, they asserted McDonald’s and its franchisees improperly trained workers on social distancing and mask-wearing, as required by the Centers for Disease Control and state public health rules set by Gov. Pritzker, and then did not enforce those policies within its restaurants.
In her ruling, Judge Reilly rejected some of the workers’ concerns and allegations. She noted, for instance, McDonald’s and its franchisees provide workers with sufficient supplies of masks and gloves. Further, she noted, the restaurant chain and its franchisees have installed plexiglass shields to protect workers from respiratory droplets, which can spread the virus.
“McDonald’s took many available measures to mitigate COVID-19…” the judge wrote. “Even throughout the hearing, if McDonald’s learned of a deficiency, they moved to correct it.”
However, the judge said McDonald’s still failed on two points: properly training workers regarding social distancing and in enforcing mask-wearing policies.
While the plaintiffs sought a court order enforceable against McDonald’s Corporation, Judge Reilly declined to do so, saying only the ruling could only apply to franchisees, as they owned the restaurants at issue, not the corporate parent.
Specifically, the ruling would apply to franchisees McDonald’s Restaurants of Illinois, which owns the McDonald’s at 2438 W. Cermak Road, Chicago, and the entity known as DAK4 LLC, which owns the McDonald’s restaurant at 10320 S. Kedzie Ave., Chicago.
The order does not, as yet, award any funds to any of the plaintiffs or their attorneys.
Reilly said: “This Court finds that the harm of being infected with COVID-19 is not something that a monetary award will remedy.”
“Instead of being financially compensated for risking exposure, the Plaintiffs here simply want the ability to work in an environment where their health and safety is not put at risk,” the judge wrote.
Reilly said the order took effect on June 24 and would continue until she either rules differently during later proceedings on the merits of the case, or until Pritzker issues new state public health guidelines regarding facial coverings and social distancing related to COVID-19.
The plaintiffs have been represented in the action by attorneys with the firm of James & Hoffman PC, of Washington, D.C.
McDonald’s and its various franchisees were represented by the firms of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, of Chicago; SmithAmundsen LLC, of Chicago; and Anthony J. Madonia & Associates, of Des Plaines.