Employees of the Kentucky candle factory destroyed in a tornado over the weekend say that they were threatened with termination if they left their work early.
NBC News reported that Mayfield Consumer Products factory employee McKayla Emery said her co-workers asked to leave the site after tornado sirens sounded outside on Friday. Employees asked managers to let them take shelter at their homes, but managers told employees that ''if you leave, you're more than likely to be fired.''
Some employees left anyway, fearing for their safety, while others congregated in restrooms and hallways.
Several employees asked to go home after the immediate danger had passed, but employee Haley Conder said that team leaders told her that they wouldn't let workers leave for safety reasons. Instead, they sent everyone back to work, thinking that the tornado was no longer a danger.
Company spokesperson Bob Ferguson denied the allegations.
''It's absolutely untrue. We've had a policy in place since COVID began. Employees can leave anytime they want to leave and they can come back the next day,'' Ferguson said.
Managers and team leaders undergo a series of emergency drills that follow Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) guidelines, and ''those protocols are in place and were followed,'' he added.
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