Tornado-hit factory sued by Ky. workers
MAYFIELD, Ky. – Survivors of a tornado that leveled a Kentucky candle factory, killing eight workers, filed a lawsuit claiming their employer demonstrated “flagrant indifference” by refusing to allow employees to go home early as the storm approached.
The lawsuit filed in state court late Wednesday accuses the company of violating Kentucky occupational safety and health workplace standards by keeping its staff at work despite the danger of death and injury. The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages from Mayfield Consumer Products.
“It’s a straightforward claim, exactly what this statute was meant to address,” said Amos Jones, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney representing employees.
Bob Ferguson, a spokesman for the company located in the town of Mayfield, has previously insisted that employees were free to leave any time, and he denied that they would have faced retribution if they left. Ferguson did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
The company’s CEO, Troy Propes, said in a statement Wednesday that the company was retaining “an independent expert team” to review the actions of managers and employees leading up to when the tornado struck the factory.
“We’re confident that our team leaders acted entirely appropriately and were, in fact, heroic in their efforts to shelter our employees,” Propes said. “We are hearing accounts from a few employees that our procedures were not followed. We’re going to do a thorough review of what happened.”
The lawsuit claims the factory had “up to 31⁄2 before the tornado hit its place of business to allow its employees to leave its worksite as safety precautions.” The factory showed “flagrant indifference to the rights” of the workers by refusing to do so, the lawsuit said.
The legal action was taken less than a week after the storms that began Friday night destroyed lives and property from Arkansas to Illinois and in parts of neighboring states, carving a path more than 200 miles through Kentucky.
More than 100 people were working on candle orders when the twister flattened the Mayfield facility.