Tractor Supply pulled back light duty, then fired injured worker, suit alleges

On March 6, 2025, the complaint alleges, Collins lifted a box on her shift and felt her back “go out.” She told a supervisor what happened. That supervisor, identified in the complaint only as Brian, was covering for one of her regular supervisors that day. According to the filing, Brian responded “do what you can do” and sent her back to the floor. Collins says she worked through the rest of that shift, and the next day, in visible pain. 

A worker’s compensation claim eventually went through. Doctors diagnosed sciatica, cervical radiculopathy and a herniated disc, the complaint says, and put Collins on restrictions: no overhead work, bending, twisting, or standing or walking more than 30 minutes at a stretch. 

Tractor Supply granted a light duty assignment scanning inventory codes and approved the break schedule. By the standards of an ADA case, this is the part the company gets right. 

The complaint says the trouble started after that. Supervisors, Collins alleges, began approaching her individually – not the whole shift – to offer “voluntary time off,” or VTO. Under company policy, the filing says, VTO is unpaid (unless the employee uses accrued leave) and is supposed to be offered shift-wide when there isn’t enough work to go around. Collins claims she was singled out, and that what started as offers became insistence. 

On April 16, 2025, Collins alleges, DC Supervisor Chastity Campbell told her she “really need[ed] for [Ms. Collins] to go home.” The next morning, the filing says, HR representative Makeba Lawhorn called Collins before her scheduled shift and told her “not to come in,” telling her the company “could not afford to pay” her for the light duty work.