The agency says repeated reactions sent her to the hospital before the company let her go

A benefits software company fired a worker with a severe onion allergy instead of accommodating it, the EEOC alleges in a new lawsuit.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued Paycom Payroll, LLC on June 30 in federal court in Oklahoma, accusing the company of breaking federal disability law in its handling of a benefits coordinator's severe food allergy.

The employee, according to the complaint, had a medically documented anaphylactic allergy to onions - one serious enough that even airborne exposure could threaten her breathing and land her in the hospital. She disclosed it early and often, the filing says: during her April 2024 interview, again at orientation after she started on May 20, 2024, and to her team lead.

Her work made accommodation realistic, the agency argues. She sat at a desk, worked largely on her own, and met clients over Zoom to help move benefits information into the company's software.

Even so, the complaint describes a string of dangerous exposures once she was on the job. Coworkers walked past her cubicle with onion burgers. Food was carried to a breakroom near her. At one point, the company catered a lunch containing onions. Several reactions required emergency medication, the filing says, and one, on June 10, 2024, sent her to the hospital by ambulance.

She asked for help repeatedly. In a May 28, 2024 email, the complaint says, she told human...

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