She allegedly found out she was fired when her badge stopped working
The EEOC is suing Butterball, alleging the company fired a long-tenured employee undergoing cancer treatment rather than accommodate her disability.
The federal lawsuit, filed on March 31 in the Eastern District of North Carolina (EEOC v. Butterball, LLC, Case No. 5:26-cv-00202), paints a troubling picture for any HR department that outsources its leave administration. According to the agency's filing, Butterball did not just fall short on accommodating an employee with breast cancer — it allegedly handed her off to a third-party administrator and never looked back.
Marie Marc had worked at Butterball's turkey processing facility in Mount Olive, North Carolina, for more than a decade. She was hired in January 2013 as a Second Processing Employee. Marc identifies as Haitian and speaks almost exclusively Haitian Creole, relying on her daughter to translate when communicating with English speakers.
In August 2023, Marc was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed time off for chemotherapy. With her daughter's help, she called Butterball on August 24 to share her diagnosis and request leave. According to the EEOC, the company told her to contact Voya Financial, its third-party benefits administrator, to process the request.
What followed, according to the filing, was a bureaucratic runaround. Voya directed Marc and her daughter to an online claims process, where they submitted a Critical Illness/Specified Disease Claim. But the EEOC alleges Voya never actually opened a leave request for Marc. Over the following weeks, Marc and her daughter called Voya multiple times seeking updates and were allegedly shuffled between departments without resolution.
Meanwhile, Butterball's attendance system kept running. Marc missed shifts at the end of August and early September for chemotherapy and recovery. Despite submitting doctor's notes, she allegedly racked up penalty points under the company's absenteeism policy. On September 5, the day she returned to work, Butterball issued her a final attendance warning. She worked the next day but missed additional shifts between September 7 and 11 due to more treatments.
On September 13, Butterball terminated her. According to the EEOC, the company never told her. Marc reportedly showed up to work on September 18, only to find her badge no longer worked. When she met with a human resources representative, she was informed she had been fired. She presented another doctor's note and again disclosed her condition, but the company stood by its decision.
The EEOC alleges Butterball "washed its hands of the matter" and failed to ensure that non-English-speaking employees like Marc understood how to access its leave and disability processes. The agency also alleges the company never engaged in a good-faith interactive process to explore accommodations.
The case is at an early stage, and no determination has been made on the merits. The EEOC is seeking back pay, front pay, compensatory and punitive damages, reinstatement, and a permanent injunction.
For HR leaders, the case is a pointed reminder: when you outsource leave administration, the legal obligation to accommodate stays with you. If the system breaks down, it is the employer — not the vendor — left answering for it.
