Two managers of McDonald’s restaurants in Sweden are accused of selling job vacancies and work permits to foreign workers. Press manager Håkan Ström told the media on behalf of McDonald’s Sweden, “It has come to our attention that there may have been criminal activity at one of our restaurants in the Stockholm area. We are looking very seriously at this and we filed a police report on November 5th.”
According to the Expressen news agency, the two individuals allegedly sold work permits for about SEK 100,000 (EUR 11,565) each. One worker reportedly had to give the managers up to SEK 11,000 (EUR 1,270) at the end of each month in order to pay off his debt. Another worker told authorities that one of the managers had taken his passport.
Experts say such work permits can be used as a path to permanent residency in the Nordic country.
Both of the managers have reportedly denied the accusations but have been suspended from work pending a police investigation.