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Workers have filed a class-action lawsuit against the Kentucky candle factory where eight people died in a tornado.
The suit, filed Wednesday in the Graves Circuit Court on behalf of Elijah Johnson and 109 “similarly situated employees,” accuses Mayfield Consumer Products of refusing to allow them to “leave work before the tornado actually hit its place of business even though the Defendant had at least 3 hours' notice of the danger this tornado posed.”
The court documents point to news articles that detail the accusations against Mayfield Consumer Products. Employee Haley Conder told theAssociated Pressthat a supervisor threatened her with written disciplinary action if she decided to leave work despite tornado warning sirens that went off at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Similarly,NBC Newsreported that at least five workers claimed supervisors told workers they would be terminated if they left the workplace early. Mayfield Consumer Products spokesman Bob Ferguson — who did not immediately return PEOPLE’s request for comment about the suit — told NBC News that the allegations in its story were “absolutely untrue.”
“We’ve had a policy in place since Covid began. Employees can leave any time they want to leave and they can come back the next day,” the spokesperson added.
Meanwhile,Spectrum News 1— another outlet cited in the suit — reported that employee Kyanna Parsons-Perez said her immediate supervisor looked out for her and coworkers but that she questioned decisions from the top.
“Whoever his boss is probably should have said, ‘We probably don’t need to make those candles today. Maybe we should wait.’ But they didn’t,” Parsons- Perez told the outlet.
With the lawsuit, employees are seeking compensation, punitive damages and legal fees with interest in a jury trial.
Lexington-based attorney William Davis, who is representing the victims, said in a press release, “Management at that factory caused, oversaw, and facilitated a shirking of decency with regard to duties of care, and faithful employees are now injured or dead, two weekends before Christmas.”
“Two things seem never to stop in today’s world of labor: Corporate greed and victim-blaming coverups,” added Washington, D.C. attorney Amos Jones, who is also representing the employees.
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Speaking with theLexington Herald-Leader, the Mayfield Consumer Products spokesman said he had not yet seen evidence from the employees nor talked with their attorneys.
“We live in a litigious society,” Ferguson said, per the newspaper. “The only thing I would say is that it’s unseemly they have people posted outside the coroner’s office. We’ve heard from some of our people and their families who have been upset about that. It would be better if this out-of-town lawyer could give our people time to grieve.”
Mayfield Consumer Products has set up anonline fundraiserfor victims of the tornado.
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The factory, which was the third-largest employer in the Western Kentucky area, had been especially busy making candles for the holiday season when the facility was leveled in the storm, according to theAssociated Press.
“There will be a level of review that will take months,” Gov. Andy Beshear said whilespeaking at a press conferenceon Tuesday, going on to emphasize that it was a routine probe.
“It shouldn’t suggest that there was any wrongdoing,” he said. “But what it should give people confidence in is that we’ll get to the bottom of what happened.”
source: people.com
