New lawsuit filed by workers in Kentucky factory hit by tornado

MAYFIELD, Ky. — A body of workers who declare they weren’t allowed to go away a Kentucky candle manufacturing facility earlier than a twister destroyed the constructing have filed a second lawsuit in opposition to the corporate.

The swimsuit filed Thursday in Graves County accuses Mayfield Shopper Merchandise and one among its supervisors of false imprisonment and infliction of emotional misery. The grievance contains the households of three staff who died when the twister hit the plant on Dec. 10, 2021.

Among the similar staff had joined a federal class motion lawsuit that made comparable claims. The storms killed dozens of individuals throughout the state, together with six on the Mayfield plant.

A number of of the plaintiffs stated they have been instructed they might be “terminated” in the event that they left because the storm approached, in accordance with the lawsuit. A type of staff, Elijah Johnson, stated in media accounts final 12 months that he walked right into a supervisor’s workplace with a bunch of workers who have been asking to go away. Johnson stated he “requested to go away they usually instructed me I’d be fired,” the lawsuit stated. Johnson was injured and hospitalized after the storm hit.

The corporate has disputed Johnson’s declare. A press release launched by its lawyer final month stated Johnson instructed one other worker that he was instructed to not go away after the manufacturing facility instructed workers to shelter in place. The corporate stated Johnson had clocked in to work about quarter-hour earlier than that occurred, the assertion stated.

On Thursday, a spokesman for the corporate stated in an e mail that they had not reviewed the brand new lawsuit however stated the supervisor who communicated with workers “was a hero on the evening of the twister and (the corporate) will zealously defend any claims made in opposition to him.”

The lawsuit says the corporate had greater than three hours of discover that extreme climate was approaching the realm. It alleges the corporate didn’t prepare its workers in emergency security procedures and had only a central hallway and two bogs for 110 workers to shelter in in the course of the twister.

Final month, a body of workers, together with Johnson, alleged in a submitting with the Nationwide Labor Relations Board that the corporate was interfering with employee compensation advantages as a result of they participated in an Occupational Security and Well being Administration investigation.

The corporate has been fined $40,000 by OSHA for violations of federal labor regulation.

The corporate stated in a press release final month that it complied with the OSHA investigation “to one of the best of its means and even facilitated a number of worker interviews.”