In order to allow their employees to pay respects to her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the McDonald’s corporation has announced it will be closing all of its locations during the Queen’s funeral on September 19th.
Every one of the 1,300 McDonald’s locations in the UK will be closed on Monday, September 19th until 5 pm as a mark of respect for the late Queen, with a spokesperson for the fast food giant explaining the closure was due to the fact the company “want to allow our people to pay their respects in the way they choose.”
McDonald’s also posted a statement to their Twitter account saying, “All of our UK restaurants will be closed on Monday until 5 pm, to allow everyone at McDonald’s to pay their respects to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
According to a report from the BBC, the American company is just one of many other corporations that have pledged to keep their doors closed on the day of Her Majesty’s funeral including supermarket chains Aldi, Sainsbury’s, larger Tesco shops, Waitrose, Lidl, Morrisons and ASDA, as well as several other major chains such as B&Q and Currys. Fast food outlet Greggs will also not be serving on the bank holiday announced for the Royal funeral.
In fellow Commonwealth country Canada, the federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that September 19th will be a holiday for federal employees but stated that it was up to individual provinces will have to decide on their own if they want to mark the day as a holiday.
In Canada’s most populous province Ontario, Premier Doug Ford refused to grant all workers the day off but did call for a day of mourning and a moment of silence at 1 pm. British Columbia has granted provincial workers the day off and is closing schools, while Nova Scotia will recognize the day as a provincial holiday along with New Brunswick, which recognizes the day as a temporary holiday and Prince Edward Island which will mark the day as a statutory holiday for provincially regulated workers.
Neither Manitoba, Saskatchewan nor Quebec have chosen to have statutory holidays but will commemorate Her Majesty or hold a day of mourning.