A former compensation director at McDonald’s has sued her ex-employer over allegations that the company misrepresented its compensation figures in a 2007 proxy statement, according to the Chicago Tribune. Lisa Bridges, who served as senior compensation director with McDonald’s between February 2006 and April 2007, alleges that McDonald’s failed to disclose information relating to company perks it gave to top executives, then terminated Bridges following her pressing of the issue.
Bridges alleges that McDonald’s bookkeepers concealed a number of perks it gave to Tim Fenton, the company’s president of Asian operations. These perks include two country club memberships worth $3,000 and the misrepresentation of almost $100,000 in “home leave” expenses for Fenton.
Bridges also says that McDonald’s “disguised” more than $10 million it paid to former president Mike Roberts, reporting the payment as if Roberts was a transitional employee and not in fact a former executive.
The former McDonald’s compensation director claims she was fired on April 6, 2007, just one day before the company released its annual proxy statement. Bridges says that she had attempted to resolve the matter both within McDonald’s and through “administrative remedies” before filing the suit.
McDonald’s rebuffed the allegations, saying, “This case has absolutely no merit and the claims are baseless. We will vigorously defend against these claims and we remain confident that the court will rule in our favor.”