Managers wouldn't act on the reports - then came fewer hours and a passed-over promotion
A South Dakota fast-food franchisee ignored a worker's harassment complaints, then cut her hours after she spoke up, the EEOC alleges.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit against TNT Chicken, Inc. on July 20, 2026, over how the company handled complaints from a Black female worker at the Slim Chickens franchise it runs in Sioux Falls. The agency alleges she was harassed because of her race and sex, retaliated against when she complained, and forced to quit.
According to the complaint, filed in the US District Court for the District of South Dakota, the alleged conduct began around November 2023. A shift lead assigned to train the worker regularly used a racial slur to her face, the filing says. The complaint also alleges he told her he had never "been with" a Black woman and was curious about what Black women looked like naked.
The complaint also describes threats of physical violence. It says the shift lead told the worker he would cut her body up, put her in his trunk, and leave her in the woods where no one would find her. He also said he would buy a big whip and "whoop her like they used to whip horses," and that he knew someone with a hog farm because the animals devour "everything but the teeth," according to the filing.
For HR readers, the case turns on what the employer allegedly did after she reported it. The worker told both her manager and the general manager, the complaint says, and gave her manager text messages from coworkers who had witnessed the behavior. The manager said management would not act, according to the filing, and the general manager did not respond at all.
The worker also filed a police report over the threats, the EEOC says. Soon after she complained, the complaint alleges, the franchisee cut her hours and passed her over for a shift lead position. When she objected, the filing says, her manager told her she should have thought about that before filing the police report.
The EEOC alleges the harassment was so severe that a reasonable person would have found the conditions intolerable, leaving the worker no real choice but to resign, a situation the law calls constructive discharge.
The agency brought the case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars workplace discrimination based on race and sex and protects employees who complain from retaliation. The EEOC says it tried to resolve the matter through conciliation, its informal pre-suit settlement process, but could not reach an agreement, issuing a Notice of Failure of Conciliation on January 8, 2026.
For employers, the case is a reminder that a harassment complaint left unaddressed can escalate into federal litigation. The EEOC is seeking back pay, front pay, and compensatory and punitive damages for the worker, along with court orders requiring the franchisee to change its policies and practices.
The allegations have not been tested in court, and no court has ruled on the claims.
