A McDonald’s restaurant in Port Macquarie on the NSW Mid North Coast is under investigation by WorkSafe NSW following reports that staff were ordered to keep working despite being told by fire authorities to evacuate.
On Friday, November 8, when multiple suburbs in Port Macquarie came under threat, McDonald’s workers at the highway branch were instructed to keep working.
Staff at the McDonald’s Port Macquarie Highway branch received geo-located emergency warnings via their mobile phones from the Rural Fire Service on Thursday night and again on Friday afternoon informing them there were “multiple fires” in the region and they needed to “seek shelter”.
Similar warnings were issued by the fire authority to their official social media pages, showing the impacted areas.
However, management at the restaurant instructed staff to remain at the store, despite the adjacent fast-food chains KFC, Subway and Oliver’s all shutting their doors so staff could evacuate.
Staff eventually took it upon themselves and ended up walking out of McDonald’s.
Authorities are now investigating.
Source: Yahoo News Australia
