Businesses around the world are scrambling to find suitable workers as many have reorganized their priorities after the pandemic. Now, one Hyundai subsidiary has allegedly found a way around the worker shortage by hiring underage labor for one plant in Alabama. According to the report, some of these kids were just 12 years old.
SMART Alabama LLC is a subsidiary of Hyundai and supplies metal-stamped parts to the automaker that are made in its Montgomery, Alabama factory. According to the report from Reuters, several minors have worked at the plant and many have said that they forewent schooling in order to work long shifts at the plant.
The news outlet says that it first learned of the underage workers after the brief disappearance of a Guatemalan migrant child in February of this year. That same girl, 13, worked at the plant alongside her brothers, aged 15 and 12 and their father confirmed these facts to Reuters. According to a dozen of those familiar with the matter, these three kids were “among a larger cohort of underage workers.”
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SMART for its part both denied the allegations and side-stepped blame by pointing the finger directly at temporary work agencies. It expected “these agencies to follow the law in recruiting, hiring, and placing workers on its premise.” That’s a pretty low bar it seems and we’re a bit shocked that anyone so young could even get a job in such a place unless there was a culture of this type of illegal activity in place already.
Hyundai’s human rights policy specifically forbids any sort of child labor including at its own suppliers. Despite that, SMART has been hit with some $48,515 in fines since 2013 over OSHA violations. The latest of those fines came earlier this same year.
A 2020 letter from SMART general manager Gary Sport to the U.S. consular officials in Mexico and obtained by Reuters clarified his position. He made clear that not only was the plant “severely lacking in labor” but also that Hyundai would not tolerate such shortcomings.
This is a developing story and we’ll update it if we hear any more from Hyundai or SMART.