FAST FOOD giant McDonald’s is facing an early new year headache. The company is facing a lawsuit in the US accusing it of discriminating against African-American customers and staff.

The women claim that racial discrimination at McDonald’s became “overt, unmistakable, non-coincidental and highly damaging” after the 2015 leadership change when UK-born Steve Easterbrook became chief executive. He is named in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed on January 7 in federal court in Illinois by Vicki Guster-Hines and Domineca Neal, who claim they “suffered systematic but covert” racial discrimination.

The women have worked at McDonald’s since 1987 and 2012 respectively and were both vice presidents for franchising and operations in Dallas but were demoted to senior director positions in 2018 as part of corporate restructuring. They are seeking damages from the fast food giant.

It is alleged in the lawsuit that since 2015 McDonald’s had conducted a purge of senior African-American employees and shifted advertising away from black customers.