The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently announced that an Ohio-based auto parts supplier did not enforce its own policy or federal guidelines on social distancing and mask wearing after several employees got sick.

OSHA Area Director Larry Johnson in Columbus, Ohio said that Sanoh America's inability to follow COVID safety protocols led to employees getting sick.

“Sanoh America’s failure to follow health and safety guidelines and its own company policies resulted in worker illnesses and death,” Johnson said. “OSHA continues to enforce all standards applying to the coronavirus and holds employers accountable for failing to meet their obligations to minimize worker exposure to the coronavirus.”

According to the DOL, an employee with the company, which is based in Mount Vernon, filed a complaint stating that guidelines to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 were not being met.

Sanoh America is now facing fines up to $25,527 when an OSHA inspection found the complaint to be legitimate, according to a news release.

OSHA inspected the company’s operations on Aug. 12, 2021 when 65 employees had tested positive for coronavirus and by the end of the month 88 employees had tested positive with five employees hospitalized and two dying, with one found to have picked up the virus at the facility, according to the news release.

The DOL reports that the company has 15 working days to fix its violation after receiving a citation and notification of penalty.