EEOC Sues Butterball for Violating the Americans with Disabilities Act

RALEIGH, N.C. – Butterball, LLC, a food processing company based out of Garner, North Carolina and doing business in Mt. Olive, North Carolina, violated federal law when it refused to provide a reasonable accommodation to an employee for treatment for breast cancer and then fired her, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a long-term employee informed the company of her cancer diagnosis and need for intermittent leave to receive and recover from chemotherapy treatments. The company referred the employee to its third-party benefits administrator but the leave was never granted. The employee accrued attendance points for cancer-related absences and was fired for violating the company’s attendance policy.

“Absent undue hardship, intermittent leave and exemptions from progressive attendance policies can be effective reasonable accommodations under federal law,” said Melinda C. Dugas, Regional Attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District Office. “Even when an employer hires a third-party benefits administrator, the employer remains responsible for complying with anti-discrimination law. The EEOC will continue to hold employers accountable when employee rights are violated under such circumstances.”

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and prohibits discrimination because of disability. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Butterball, LLC, Case No. 5:26-cv-00202-FL) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

For more information on disability discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/disability-discrimination.

The EEOC’s Charlotte District Office has jurisdiction over North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.

The EEOC is the sole federal agency authorized to investigate and litigate against businesses and other private sector employers for violations of federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. For public sector employers, the EEOC shares jurisdiction with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The EEOC also is responsible for coordinating the federal government’s employment antidiscrimination effort. More information about the EEOC is available at www.eeoc.gov.