The owner of a Kentucky candle factory destroyed by a deadly tornado last year is facing another lawsuit from employees who claim they were threatened with termination if they left before the disaster struck.
On December 10, 2021, a late-season tornado struck the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory in Mayfield, killing nine people.
Several employees who were working that night allege in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Graves County that the company “refused” to let them leave “despite having at least three hours notice of the danger this tornado posed to its place of business and its employees.”
The plaintiffs include three workers’ families who died in the disaster.
Several of the employees have also joined a class-action lawsuit against the company, which is still pending.
According to the latest lawsuit, Mayfield Consumer Products “repeatedly threatened to terminate” any employee who left due to the expected tornado, did not train the employees in emergency safety protocols, and only had one hallway and two restrooms for its 110 employees to shelter in during the tornado.
The lawsuit also claims that the company “defamed the character” of employees who spoke to news outlets about their experiences.
The company is accused of false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Mayfield Consumer Products has denied any wrongdoing on numerous occasions. According to Bradley partner Edmund Sauer, the company’s counsel at the law firm Bradley Arant Boult Cummings has not had an opportunity to review the complaint “but will do so and respond as is appropriate.”
One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Elijah Johnson, also claimed in a filing with the National Labor Relations Board last month that the company retaliated against them for participating in an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation earlier this year by refusing to pay their medical bills.
According to the attorneys, the OSHA investigation resulted in $40,000 in fines for seven violations.
Mayfield Consumer Products’ legal counsel denied Johnson’s allegations in a statement to WKMS-TV following the filing, noting that Johnson was told not to leave because a shelter-in-place policy was in effect.
“This confirms that MCP complied with federal and state law, which requires employers to ensure that employees shelter in place during hazardous weather events,” the statement said.
