Kroger to Pay $75,000 in EEOC Disability Discrimination and Retaliation Lawsuit

ATLANTA — The Kroger Co., a national grocery chain, will pay $75,000 and provide other equitable relief to settle a disability discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.

According to the EEOC’s lawsuit, a breast cancer survivor whose cancer treatments caused permanent nerve damage to her lower extremities was hired as a cashier at the Kroger in Atlanta’s Edgewood retail district. Shortly thereafter, the employee requested to sit on a stool or chair during her shifts as an accommodation and provided supporting medical documentation. The store then stopped scheduling her for shifts, ignored her repeated phone calls and she subsequently filed an internal complaint.

After several more months with no scheduled shifts, she informed the company she filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC in July 2023, and Kroger told her that any further contact should be handled between her attorney and Kroger’s legal department; the company did not attempt to contact the employee or schedule her to work thereafter.

“When an employee requests reasonable accommodations for their disability or files a complaint of discrimination, their employer cannot simply ignore them,” said Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District. “We are pleased Kroger has agreed to conduct training and install other safeguards to prevent retaliation against employees who seek to enforce their rights through internal complaints or through the EEOC.”

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits disability discrimination and retaliation. The ADA also requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities, absent undue hardship. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. The Kroger Co., Case No. 1:25-cv-00272) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia after first attempting to reach a pre-litigation settlement through its administrative conciliation process.

Darrell E. Graham, director of the EEOC’s Atlanta District, said, “Employers cannot shirk their legal obligations under the ADA. The EEOC remains committed to enforcing the ADA and protecting employees’ rights against disability discrimination.”

The two-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit requires Kroger to provide $75,000 to the former cashier. In addition to the monetary relief, Kroger will update its complaint procedures, provide specialized training to store leaders and human resources personnel who receive and handle disability accommodation requests, and post a notice in the workplace informing employees of the settlement and of their right to be free from workplace discrimination. Furthermore, the company will provide the EEOC with periodic reports regarding requests for disability accommodation and how those requests were handled.

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

The EEOC’s Atlanta District Office has jurisdiction over Georgia and the counties of Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Beaufort, Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, Georgetown, Hampton, Jasper and Williamsburg in South Carolina.

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.