Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson and the Washington State Department of Labor & Industries have ordered O'Reilly Auto Parts to pay back a total of $163,458 in lost earnings to over 2,300 Washington workers after an investigation revealed the company unlawfully withheld 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.

However, the auto parts retailer eliminated unused sick leave for employees at nearly 160 locations statewide when the company switched to a new payroll vendor at the end of 2022.

Typically, workers would be allowed to choose whether to have their leave reinstated or receive a payout for the value of the leave, but because many of the workers in this case no longer work at O’Reilly Auto Parts, the state ordered the retailer to pay all the workers the value of the lost leave.

Labor & Industries started investigating O’Reilly Auto Parts at a Puyallup, Washington, distribution center in September 2023. Investigators soon discovered the issue affected locations statewide.

O’Reilly Auto Parts has multiple stores throughout Spokane County, including six in Spokane and three in Spokane Valley.