Workers of candle factory destroyed in tornadoes file class-action lawsuit against company | Connect FM | Local News Radio

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(MAYFIELD, Kentucky) – Workers at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory, which killed eight people in tornadoes last weekend, filed a class action lawsuit against their employer late Wednesday night.

The factory was destroyed when tornadoes ripped through nine states and 89 people died.

The lawsuit filed by Elijah Johnson and 109 other “workers in a similar position” in the Graves Circuit Court in Kentucky alleges that the candle factory ordered them to keep working despite the threat of a dangerous tornado.

One employee said she had been threatened with disciplinary action if she went home early on the night tornadoes were expected.

The candle factory allegedly threatened to fire all employees who left only hours before the factory was destroyed because of the expected tornado, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit alleges that the factory has shown “blatant indifference to the rights of Plaintiff Johnson and other similarly situated plaintiffs with a subjective awareness that such behavior will result in death and / or personal injury.”

The workers were allegedly not informed of the danger of the incoming tornado, nor did their superiors tell them what “was really going on,” according to the court record.

Troy Propes, CEO of Mayfield Consumer Products, said the company is setting up an emergency fund to support employees and their families.

Staff are demanding a jury trial, compensation, punitive damages, and legal fees, all with interest.

“Management at this factory caused, monitored and facilitated the decency of welfare duties, and loyal employees are now injured or dead two weekends before Christmas,” attorney William Davis said in a statement released Tuesday.

Propes told ABC News that the company is conducting an independent review of procedures, separate from an investigation by the governor’s office, and will review methods and procedures to ensure they have been properly followed.

In previous news reports, the factory denied that workers were being threatened.

“That’s absolutely wrong,” Bob Ferguson, a spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products, told NBC News. “We have had a policy since the beginning of COVID. The employees can leave at any time and come back the next day. “

Ferguson told NBC News that managers and team leaders go through a series of emergency drills that are in accordance with guidelines from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

“These protocols are in place and have been followed,” he said.

He denied managers told employees that leaving their shifts meant risking their jobs, according to NBC News.

A spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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