This is disgusting. A McDonald’s worker has been fired for being HIV positive.

The worker was sacked from a McDonald’s restaurant in Arkansas, USA, just one week after he was questioned about his HIV status by managers and told he might lose his job for being HIV-positive.

“John Doe” is now suing the companies that run the restaurant -- but he really shouldn’t have to. McDonald’s should know better than to stand silently by while its workers face institutionalized discrimination from the companies in its franchise.

Let’s tell McDonald’s to put it right, fast.

Tell McDonald’s to apologise for firing a worker for being HIV-positive, and to make sure the same thing never happens again.

“John Doe” wasn’t the first Arkansas McDonald’s worker to be fired for being HIV-positive. He was warned by his manager that another worker at the same restaurant had also been fired for her HIV status. Such institutionalized discrimination against people living with HIV is based in ignorance, and it should have no place in our world. Sadly though, it’s still rampant. As a result, many people living with HIV face the loss of their livelihoods as well as daily stigma from colleagues and peers.

As the world’s fourth biggest employer, McDonald’s could be using its huge influence to fight discrimination by putting in place policies that ban any discrimination against HIV-positive people in every McDonald’s restaurant in the world.

We can make that happen. As a community, we’ve taken McDonald’s on before -- and we’ve won. When hundreds of thousands of us came together to tell the fast food giant to adopt a no-deforestation palm oil policy, it listened to us and released a commitment to end deforestation. Now let’s come together to ask McDonald’s to help to end discrimination against the millions of people around the world living with HIV.

Sign our petition telling McDonald’s to apologise for firing a worker for being HIV-positive -- and to make sure the same thing never happens again.