A federal lawsuit has been filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Butterball, accusing the company of violating disability laws after allegedly terminating an employee undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, claims the employee—who had worked for the company for many years—was dismissed after accumulating attendance points tied to absences related to her medical condition. According to the complaint, those absences stemmed from chemotherapy treatments and the recovery periods that followed.
The agency alleges that after informing the company of her diagnosis and need for intermittent leave, the employee was directed to a third-party benefits administrator. However, the requested leave was never approved. As a result, the employee continued to be penalized under the company’s attendance policy, ultimately leading to her termination.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers are required to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities unless doing so would create undue hardship. The EEOC maintains that allowing intermittent leave or adjusting attendance requirements can be appropriate accommodations in situations like this.
Officials also emphasized that companies cannot avoid responsibility for compliance with anti-discrimination laws by outsourcing benefits administration. The lawsuit seeks to hold Butterball accountable for what the agency describes as a failure to meet its legal obligations to an employee facing serious health challenges.
