A small number of McDonald’s workers in Manchester, Watford, Crayford and Cambridge took May Day as an opportunity to strike in a dispute over zero-hours contracts and working conditions. The Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union are also asking for a choice of fixed-hour contracts, a £10 per hour minimum wage, the end of unequal pay for young workers, and union recognition.

Last month, the Office for National Statistics, said the number of employment contracts without a minimum number of guaranteed hours increased to 1.8 million in the year to November, up from 1.7 million in 2016.

A McDonald’s spokesman responded: “We offered all 120,000 employees the chance to move to fixed hours contracts, more than 80% of them opted to stay on their existing contracts”.

The walkout follows a previous strike by McDonalds workers in September 2017. The Bakers Food and Allied Workers Union has been in dispute with the company as it does not bargain with a trade union over working conditions for its workers in the UK – but it does in Denmark, France and Germany.

Striking fast-food workers plan to demonstrate in Watford, the hometown of McDonald’s chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, as part of the industrial action. Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, has written to Easterbrook saying the workers’ demands were “fair and reasonable” and suggesting a meeting to discuss issues such as pay and union recognition at the company.

He said: “I believe that every worker deserves what they are calling for – a real living wage of at least £10 an hour, security in work and a choice of fixed hours, the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of age, and the right to form a trade union and for that union to be recognised by the company.