Cashier With Myasthenia Gravis Asked for a Seat at His Register So He Could Stop Standing All Shift — Buc-ee’s Denied It and Fired Him

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A cashier at a Buc-ee’s travel center in Bastrop, Texas says he wasn’t asking for time off, a new job title, or special treatment. He just needed a place to sit down at his register so he wouldn’t have to stand for an entire shift.

That request — tied to a chronic neuromuscular condition called myasthenia gravis — is now at the center of a federal lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The agency laid out its claims in the original post announcing the suit this week.

A simple accommodation request, tied to a doctor’s restrictions

In the EEOC’s telling, the chain of events started in October 2024, when the cashier asked for a reasonable accommodation based on physician-imposed restrictions connected to his disability.

Myasthenia gravis can cause muscle weakness and fatigue, and the lawsuit describes limits on how long he could stand at one time. One of the accommodations he requested was straightforward: seating at his workstation so he could avoid standing continuously for more than 15 minutes, and so he could regain stamina after standing.

This wasn’t framed as a preference. The lawsuit says it was part of restrictions coming from his doctor — the kind of documentation that typically kicks off an employer’s duty to take the request seriously and figure out what’s workable.

Where it went sideways: “Stand continuously”

Instead of approving seating or working out an alternative, the EEOC says Buc-ee’s denied the request and required the cashier to stand continuously anyway.

That detail matters because it’s the heart of what the ADA requires: employers generally have to provide reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities, unless the accommodation would create an undue hardship on the business.

In plain terms, the lawsuit paints a picture of a worker who said, “I can do the job, but I can’t stand the entire time,” and an employer response that amounted to, “That’s the job.”

The escalation: denial, then job loss

The complaint doesn’t stop at the denial. The EEOC says the cashier was eventually fired after he was unable to return to work due to the company’s refusal to accommodate him.

That’s an important sequence: the agency isn’t only alleging that Buc-ee’s said no to a chair. It’s also alleging that the denial put the employee in a position where he couldn’t safely keep working under the imposed conditions — and that the end result was termination.

From the worker’s side, it’s the kind of spiral employees fear when they ask for help: speak up, get told no, then lose the paycheck for not being able to do the job exactly the same way as before.

What the EEOC is accusing Buc-ee’s of doing

The EEOC says the conduct described in the complaint violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bars discrimination based on disability and requires reasonable accommodations unless they would cause undue hardship.

The agency filed the lawsuit as EEOC v. Buc-ee’s, Ltd. (Case No. 1:26-CV-0139) in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division. The press release also notes the EEOC tried to resolve the matter first through its administrative conciliation process — essentially a pre-litigation effort to reach a settlement — before filing suit.

In the announcement, acting EEOC Dallas Regional Attorney Ronald L. Phillips argued that employers often get into trouble by approaching accommodations with “inflexible thinking” and “unwarranted assumptions,” and by not using technical assistance that could help them comply.

EEOC San Antonio Field Office Director Norma Guzman also emphasized the agency’s stance that accommodations aren’t optional and that employers are expected to act “diligently and in good faith” when a worker asks for support that allows them to keep doing their job.

What people tend to focus on in cases like this

Even without a public comment thread attached to the EEOC announcement, this kind of claim usually lands the same way with workers: the chair request feels small, but the consequences aren’t.

Seating at a register is one of those workplace flashpoints that many employees recognize instantly. People tend to zero in on the practicality of it — if a cashier can scan, bag, make change, and handle customers while seated, why make standing the hill to die on?

The other thing people latch onto is the documentation trail. The EEOC’s description mentions physician-imposed restrictions, and that typically brings up the unglamorous but crucial side of workplace disputes: getting requests in writing, keeping copies of medical restrictions, and tracking what the employer actually said and when. When a disagreement turns into a lawsuit, the timeline is often the whole story.

A lawsuit that turns a chair into a test of compliance

Buc-ee’s operates travel centers throughout Texas and in 10 other states, and the case puts a spotlight on how rigid rules can collide with disability law in frontline jobs. A cashier station doesn’t look like a complicated workplace accommodation problem — until someone’s health makes “stand all day” more than just uncomfortable.

The EEOC’s lawsuit is now the vehicle for sorting out what happened, why the request was denied, and whether the company’s approach crossed the line under the ADA. For the former cashier, the stakes are basic and immediate: being able to work without being forced into a choice between physical limits and a paycheck.