The southeastern United States is still reeling from the impacts of Hurricane Helene.
One group of families in Tennessee is feeling the pain and frustration of this even more keenly after their loved ones were told they had no choice but to come in to work in dangerous conditions. Now, employees are missing, and everyone is wondering why they were forced to go to work in the first place.
Erwin, Tennessee is a small town with roughly 6,000 residents located in Unicoi County in eastern Tennessee. In addition to its small population, it is also home to Impact Plasticsa plant that claims to be “on the front lines of plastic innovation.”
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Impact Plastics appears to be a small company, with only 17 employees connected to the business’ page on LinkedIn. It’s understandable that a small company would feel an extra measure of pressure at the thought of having to slow down or even discontinue production for a few days because of a storm.
That doesn’t, however, give a company the right to act as Impact Plastics did.
A post in the Facebook group “Missing People In East TN & Western NC due to flooding” featured a post from Teresa Perez.
Perez shared screenshots of social media posts made by family and friends of those who went missing from Impact Plastics. There were nine screenshots in total.
Naturally, many people who came across the post wondered how so many people from one business could go missing, even in such tumultuous weather.
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One Facebook user, Tammy Sandlin Perez, asked, “Why are so many missing from that place? Why did they not let them go home when a storm was coming?”
Another user, Sarah Klase Richardson, replied, “They were told if they left early, they would be fired.”
While this information has not been confirmed by any official source, another person on Facebook, Chrissylynn Meissner, corroborated the account. “People’s family members are saying they were forced to stay until the water was waist-deep, and then the truck got caught in the current,” she said.
Based on another comment from Marci Kaye, Meissner seemed to be referring to a “flatbed truck” the National Guard used to attempt to rescue the employees.
Local news provider WJHL 11 reported on the number of missing people in Unicoi County, which they said numbered 73.
“Over 25 agencies are working with the incident command set up at Unicoi County Middle School to help clean up debris and locate people still missing,” WJHL said.
The director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, Jim Erwin, told WJHL, “We’ve probably got over 100 people at this time in the I-26 Industrial Park (areas) conducting searches, but there are such large debris piles that it will be very tedious and we have to be very careful during our procedure.”
The Industrial Park is where Impact Plastics is located. WJHL has been unable to reach the company for a statement.
While there are certain protections for employees to avoid working in dangerous situations, like OSHAor the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, inclement weather policies are murky at best.
According to Axcet HR Solutions“legally, you can insist your team report to work.” However, they also acknowledged that it is important for employers to “value the well-being and safety of each and every one of your workers.”
So, yes, it was technically legal for Impact Plastics to require their employees to come to work, even in a storm. However, doing so could cause major legal issues for the company as those who lost loved ones are likely to sue, as is their right.
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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.
