Company Threatened To Fire Employees If They Left Work Because Of Kentucky Tornado

Supervisors of a Kentucky factory warned employees that they were likely to get fired if they left their shifts early as a deadly tornado barreled toward them last weekend, survivors claimed.

Eight out of the 110 employees who were working the overnight shift at the Mayfield Consumer Products scented candles factory in Mayfield, Kentucky, Friday were confirmed dead in the aftermath of the storms and tornadoes that hit the state and five others that day and early Saturday.

On Monday, a company spokesman confirmed that the other 102 workers on duty at the time are alive and have been accounted for, The Guardian reported.

More than a dozen of the factory's workers had asked their supervisors to be allowed to leave and take shelter at home after the first tornado sirens sounded outside the factory around 5:30 p.m. Friday, NBC News reported. However, the requests were denied, and supervisors and team leaders told the workers that they could jeopardize their jobs if they left their shifts early, employees said.

Factory managers told four workers who wanted to leave, "If you leave, you’re more than likely to be fired," according to 21-year-old McKayla Emery, who spoke to NBC News from her hospital bed.

Latavia Halliburton, another employee, also said she witnessed workers being threatened with termination if they left.

Mark Saxton, a 37-year-old forklift operator, told the outlet that a manager replied to him "yes" after he asked if they would still fire him "even with the weather like this."

Overtime pay was reportedly available, but it was unclear if those who stayed were offered additional pay.

Around 15 people asked to go home in the three- to four-hour window between the first and second emergency alarms, according to 29-year-old employee Haley Conder.

Team leaders allegedly told Conder that they would not allow workers to leave because of safety precautions, so they kept everyone in the hallways and the bathrooms. They then sent everyone back to work after they thought the tornado was no longer a danger, but employees later sought shelter again after a second tornado siren sounded sometime after 9 p.m.

Conder said she and a group of other workers approached three managers and asked to go home following the second siren. "You can't leave. You can't leave. You have to stay here," Conder claimed the managers had told them.

Mayfield Consumer Products has denied the allegations.

"It's absolutely untrue. We’ve had a policy in place since [COVID-19] began. Employees can leave any time they want to leave and they can come back the next day," company spokesman Bob Ferguson said.

Ferguson also denied that supervisors told employees they were risking their jobs if they left their shifts early, explaining that managers and team leaders undergo a series of emergency drills that follow guidelines of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The protocols, which were not disclosed, "are in place and were followed," Ferguson said.

A 24-hour hotline is available as of Monday for employees to call about hazard pay, grief counseling and other assistance, he added.

A total of 74 people in Kentucky were reported dead in the aftermath of the natural disaster, which state Gov. Andy Beshear described as "the most deadly tornado event in Kentucky's history."