Gov. Bob Ferguson and the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries are returning lost earnings to more than 2,000 Washington workers at O’Reilly Auto Parts after an investigation revealed the retailer was unlawfully eliminating unused sick pay.
Washington’s paid sick leave law requires employers to allow workers to carry over up to 40 hours of unused paid sick leave from one year to the next. Labor & Industries discovered O’Reilly improperly eliminated unused sick leave for 2,327 employees at nearly 160 locations statewide when the company switched to a new payroll vendor at the end of 2022.
Typically, Labor & Industries allows workers to choose whether to have their leave reinstated or receive a payout for the value of the leave. According to a news release, because most of the workers in this case no longer work at O’Reilly, the state ordered the retailer to pay all the workers the value of the lost leave — a total of $163,458.
Workers who feel they may be owed money in the O’Reilly paid sick leave case should contact Labor & Industries by calling toll free 1-866-219-7321.
