Kansas City, Mo. ? Hardee’s has agreed to pay $34,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that one of its restaurants repeatedly refused to hire an applicant because her face was disfigured.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the St Louis-based fast-food chain, which is owned by California-based CKE Restaurants Inc., submitted the proposed agreement Monday to the federal court in Kansas City. Besides the cash payment, the settlement also called for the chain to apologize in writing and provide training to its managers and human resources employees.

The EEOC said the suit, also filed Monday, alleged that the jobseeker applied more than once for entry-level work at the Hardee’s in Oak Grove, near Independence, but was never hired. The suit said others with no better qualifications were given jobs while the applicant was not. The applicant has Treacher Collins Syndrome, a birth defect that caused a malformed cranial bone structure, asymmetrical eye placement and the absence of ears.

The EEOC also claimed that Hardee’s officials threw away the jobseeker’s application and that the discrimination constituted a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We found that Hardee’s wouldn’t hire this applicant because she looked different, not because she couldn’t do the work,” said Robert Johnson, regional attorney for the EEOC’s St. Louis office. “Such conduct hurts us all.

“But we commend Hardee’s for doing the right thing in settling this case and agreeing to appropriate training and any needed accommodations.”

The agency said Hardee’s denied the claims and said that is has a policy against discrimination based on a disability. Messages left by The Associated Press with CKE were not immediately returned.