Orileys Auto Parts was fined $240,000 for permitting employees to use their cars
Tuesday’s announcement by the New Mexico Environment Department revealed that it had issued more $240,000 in citations to Springfield-based Orileys Auto Parts due to their failure to protect workers from COVID-19.
Orileys Auto Parts spokesperson says that the company will contest the citations
According to the New Mexico Environment Department’s news release, O’Reilly allowed employees at Lovington, New Mexico, who were suffering from symptoms and later tested positive for COVID-19, to continue to work.
According to the release, O’Reilly did not properly screen employees and didn’t follow proper cleaning and disinfecting protocols.
According to the release, one of the Lovington O’Reilly Smokey Nagata employees, a 46 year-old woman, died due to COVID-19 complications.
James Kenney, NMED cabinet Secretary, stated that employees are given a false sense they are protected from COVID-19 when policies are put in place to comply state law. However, this is not right. This tragic situation could have been prevented if O’Reilly management had complied with corporate policy.
Lovington penalties are one month after Orileys Auto Parts paid $79,200 to settle with New Mexico Environment Department over violations of a Santa Fe public health order.
Mark Merz, an Orileys Auto Parts spokesperson, stated that the company received the Lovington store citations over the weekend and was still looking into them.
Merz stated in an email that “we take these matters seriously” and that safety and well-being of customers and team members has been our top priority since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been implementing COVID-related best practices policies and protocols in accordance with CDC guidelines and government mandated protocols for many years. We continue to improve our protection measures as new information becomes available to ensure safety and well-being of our customers and team members.
“At the moment, we have not received a copy from this department’s investigative material. However, we are actively working towards obtaining them. We disagree with the conclusions or the proposed fines in the citations. These matters can be challenged in a formal manner and we plan to follow that process.
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