EEOC accuses Slim Chickens franchisee of ignoring worker’s harassment complaints

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.