Amazon worker feared for her job after missing work due to tornado

The company eventually credited Leslie Campbell for the hours she lost and forgave her unpaid time off

An Amazon worker found herself fearing for her job after she was unable to make it to her shift after powerful tornadoes tore through her Kentucky town.

Insider reports that Leslie Campbell, a worker at an Amazon warehouse in Campbellsville, Kentucky, spent last Friday sheltering with her mother as tornadoes ripped through Taylor County, Kentucky, where she lives.

The next morning, Ms Campbell left her home at .45am for her shift at the Amazon warehouse, where she worked as a picker.

On her way to work, Ms Campbell was stopped and turned back by police officers searching for survivors at a nearby farm. She stopped at a nearby church to call Amazon's HR team to alert them to her situation.

She explained her situation and that she was physically unable to make it to the warehouse that day due to the damage caused by the tornadoes. The Employee Resource Centre worker she spoke with told her that they had no records of the storms, and could not excuse her time off. As a result, Ms Campbell's attendance record slipped into "negative unpaid time off," which Insider confirmed in its original reporting.

According to Ms Campbell - and Amazon's own rules - having this on her attendance record meant she could be fired.

Amazon only allows workers to take a certain amount of unpaid and paid time off. When an employee exceeds their allotted unpaid time off, they face possible termination. Ms Campbell tried two more times to drive to work, but was blocked each time.

Desperate to rectify the situation, she reached out to an Amazon executive on Twitter.

After spending the morning trying to get to work, Ms Campbell noticed that Dave Clark, Amazon's retail chief, had posted a tweet that acknowledged that some company employees had been killed when a warehouse collapsed due to a tornado in Edwardsville, Illinois.

She replied to the tweet with her story, letting Mr Clark know that the company had not helped her in her situation.

"I'm an Amazon worker in Kentucky, tornado hit 2 miles from my house and I physically couldn't get to work for my shift," she wrote. "The ERC team told me that they had no record of tornadoes in Kentucky and couldn't help me with not getting attendance time reduced for today."

After she posted the tweet, a flood of social media responses poured out in support of her and calling on Amazon to rectify her situation.

Later that evening, Mr Clark replied to Ms Campbell's tweet, apologising for the mistake.

"Sorry Leslie I shared with the team we will get it fixed for you all," he said.

Sometime after the reply, Ms Campbell said she received a call from Amazon's ERC. The Amazon rep told her that the company had no record of tornadoes in the area - despite widespread media coverage of the tornados by that point - and advised her to bring the matter up during her next shift.

But another call came through shortly after that, informing her that the company would excuse her shift and pay her for the 11 hours of work she missed.

The Independent has reached out to Amazon for comment.

In previous statements, Amazon claims it tells staff members not to travel to work if they feel conditions are unsafe, and that workers will not face retribution for doing so.

Ms Clark expressed her gratitude for the support she received on Twitter, telling Insider she "100 per cent" believed she would have been fired if Mr Clark had not intervened.

"I thank everyone for the awareness for this tweet. I know everyone's situation with Amazon is different but the facility I work for has overall been fine. I do admit there are things that could be better but I've worked for a company in the past that was much worse," she wrote on Twitter after Amazon credited her the lost hours.