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- A TikTok video appears to show a customer yelling at a McDonald's employee after being told to wear a mask.
- The individual smashes a plastic COVID-19 protection screen, which hurtles towards the employee, the video shows.
- Customers have attacked restaurant and retail workers over mask requirements during the pandemic.
A viral TikTok video appears to show a customer shouting at a McDonald's employee and smashing a plastic COVID-19 protection screen after being told to wear a mask.
The video, which has 2 million views, shows a maskless individual arguing with a staff member at the order counter in a McDonald's restaurant. The audio is largely unintelligible, but the staff member can be heard saying that the customer has to wear a mask.
In the video, the maskless individual snatches a mask from a companion's hands and thrusts it at a plastic screen positioned on the counter in front of the McDonald's employee. The individual then shoves the screen, which detaches from the counter and flies at the McDonald's worker.
@dreg32, the TikTok user who uploaded the video, posted it with the hashtag #syd, which suggests that the video was taken in Sydney, Australia.
Sydney is in the state of New South Wales, which mandates masks in indoor settings.
"At McDonald's the health and safety of our people and customers is our top priority," a McDonald's spokesperson told news.com.au. "We are committed to providing a workplace free from harm and are taking the necessary action to support the health and safety of our people and customers at all times. We expect our people to be treated with respect.
"We will always do our best for our customers, but we won't accept abuse, intimidation, threats, or violence towards our employees."
Customers have attacked restaurant workers over mask requirements
Throughout the pandemic, customers have clashed with public-facing workers, including restaurant, retail, and airline staff, over coronavirus safety protocols such as mask requirements, vaccine mandates, and social-distancing policies.
Police in Madison, Wisconsin, say that a customer punched a pizzeria manager in the face and smashed a window because he was asked to wear a mask, while court documents allege that a Southwest Airlines flight attendant was punched in the face and lost two teeth in May after asking a passenger to put on her seatbelt, stow away her tray table, and wear her mask properly.
Police also say that the manager of a Jack in the Box restaurant in Texas was stabbed multiple times by a customer who refused to wear a mask and that a man in Canada urinated on the counter of a Dairy Queen restaurant after being asked to wear a mask.