Manager of McDonald's franchise in Peru says faulty drinks machine caused deaths (updated)

Arcos Dorados Holdings

22/12/2019 01:26

(Adds details of protest by victims´ relatives)
    By Marco Aquino
    LIMA, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The general manager of the company
that operates McDonald's restaurants in Peru told local
television that the beverage machine at the restaurant where two
employees were fatally electrocuted last weekend had experienced
an electrical fault but it was not reported to the company's
maintenance department.
    Relatives of the two employees who were killed and about 80
other people protested against McDonald's  MCD.N  in a suburb of
Lima on Saturday afternoon.
    "The information, unfortunately, that the machine was not
working and giving people shocks was only known within the local
managers and was not escalated so that immediate action could be
 taken," José Andrade, general manager of Arcos Dorados Peru
 ARCO.N , which has the franchise for all the McDonald's
restaurants in Peru, told Peruvian television station Canal N on
Friday night.
    The two employees who were killed, Alexandra Porras, 18, and
Carlos Gabriel Campo, 19, were electrocuted last Sunday in
Pueblo Libre, a district of the capital, while cleaning the
kitchen, police said.
    On Saturday, protesters carried posters bearing the victims'
photos and slogans reading: "Justice for Alexa and Gabriel," who
relatives said were a couple who had been working for the
fast-food chain for several months. 
    A lawyer acting for the victims´ relatives, Elizabeth
Carmona, said she had asked the prosecution on Friday for
McDonald’s and Arcos Dorados representatives in Peru to be
detained.
    "The evidence of the criminal experts has determined that a
power leak caused the deaths," she said.
    Rocío Zapata, Gabriel's mother, claimed that the restaurant
did not offer proper training to its employees. "Who is going to
give back our children?" she said.
    Arcos Dorados, which owns and operates McDonald's Corp
 MCD.N  restaurants throughout Latin America, said on Wednesday
it had shut all 29 McDonald's Peru restaurants to conduct safety
inspections. 
    The company said that it paid “competitive” salaries, took
seriously concerns raised about working conditions and that
workers’ shifts never exceed eight hours.
    "What we have been able to determine through internal
investigations is that at least 24 hours before this happened,
it was known that the machine was presenting problems," Andrade
said. "What they ought to have done is to stop using the
machine, even disconnect it.
    "This has hit us all very hard and we are working hard to
review all our processes, all our protocols, to ensure such a
thing does not happen again," he said.
    A spokesman for Arcos Dorados did not immediately respond to
the claims by its general manager.

 (Reporting by Marco Aquino; writing by Aislinn Laing; editing
by Steve Orlofsky and Leslie Adler)
 ((aislinn.laing@thomsonreuters.com; 0056 998188538))