RALEIGH, N.C. — Butterball, LLC, a poultry processing company doing business in Mt. Olive, North Carolina, will pay $230,000 and provide other relief to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency 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 chemotherapy and recover from those treatments. The company referred the employee to its third-party benefits administrator, but the leave was never granted. The employee accrued attendance points for the cancer-related absences and was fired for violating the company’s attendance policy.

“Employers that hire third-party benefits administrators must ensure that effective policies and procedures are in place to meet the employer’s statutory obligations under federal workplace discrimination laws,” said Melinda C. Dugas, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District. “An employer cannot delegate its responsibility for complying with the ADA.”

Such alleged conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities, absent undue hardship, and prohibits discrimination because of disability. The EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Butterball, LLC, Case No. 5:26-cv-00202-FL) in the 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.

Samuel Williams, trial attorney for the EEOC’s Charlotte District, said, “Federal law guarantees qualified individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to work. The EEOC is committed to holding employers accountable when they violate those rights and pursuing all appropriate relief for victims of discrimination.”

Under the two-year consent decree resolving the lawsuit, Butterball will ensure effective policies and procedures are in place to govern the receipt and processing of requests for reasonable accommodations under the ADA; provide leave policies to employees in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole; identify a liaison to facilitate communications and assist employees with submission of requests or claims to a third-party administrator; provide training on the ADA to human resources and benefits employees; and provide periodic reports to the EEOC.

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

The EEOC’s Charlotte District 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.