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A McDonald’s manager told a worker who complained about her hours being cut: “The black people can’t take no shifts – they’re not performing.”

Shocked Divine Tenn, 18, says Asian boss Jaskaran Singh Khela insisted it was “store policy” and would apply to all 20 black workers, a third of staff.

He claimed the decision was taken because two of her black colleagues were “under-performing”.

He made the comments in a phone conversation which Divine recorded and passed to the Sunday Mirror.

Divine, who has now quit in protest, said: “I am absolutely disgusted that a company so big and who I have worked hard for for over a year could treat me like this.

(Image: SWNS)

"I can’t believe that racism still exists in this day and age.”

Divine started working for the Birmingham branch in March 2014 on a zero hours’ contract.

Soon the university student was doing four part-time shifts a week, earning around £400 a month.

But in July she noticed that her shifts had been cut without any explanation.

She said: “I spoke to some of the other employees, who happened to be black, and they said they hadn’t been allowed to pick up any shifts either.”

(Image: REUTERS)

In the phone recording assistant manager Khela tells Divine “the black people can’t take no shifts” because “they’re not performing”.

Divine said: “I was horrified.”

McDonald’s said it took the incident “extremely seriously” and said Khela had been sacked.

It added: “McDonald’s is an inclusive employer and any incidences of discrimination against our employees will not be tolerated.”