The US Labor Department has sued Hyundai for allegedly employing child labor in its Alabama supply chain.
According to the lawsuit, it includes a 13-year-old girl who worked up to 60 hours per week producing car parts.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Montgomery, Alabama, holds Hyundai accountable for child labor practices at the Smart Alabama factory in Luverne.
The factory manufactures parts such as body panels for Hyundai’s Montgomery plant.
The suit also implicates a staffing agency, Best Practice Service, in recruiting the children to work at the supplier’s plant.
Hyundai said child labor is “not consistent with the standards and values we hold ourselves to as a company.”
The automaker criticized the Labor Department’s legal approach as “unprecedented” and unfair.
Smart Alabama did not respond to requests for comment.
Representatives of the now-defunct Best Practice Service were also unavailable.
The lawsuit details the case of a 13-year-old girl recruited by Best Practice Service who worked at the Smart Alabama plant from July 2021 to February 2022.
It also mentions two other children employed at the same facility.
“Companies cannot escape liability by blaming suppliers or staffing companies for child labor violations when they are in fact also employers themselves”
The Labor Department argues that Hyundai violated the “hot goods” provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
This prohibits the interstate commerce of goods produced in violation of child labor laws.
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Seema Nanda, the Labor Department’s chief legal officer, said: “Companies cannot escape liability by blaming suppliers or staffing companies for child labor violations when they are in fact also employers themselves.”
This lawsuit follows investigations by Reuters and The New York Times, which uncovered the use of child labor by suppliers of major car companies.
In 2022, Reuters reported Smart Alabama employed child labor.
The investigation linked similar practices to Kia, which is part of the same South Korean conglomerate as Hyundai.
A 2023 investigation by The New York Times found children working at General Motors and Ford suppliers.
Despite importing many vehicles from South Korea, Hyundai has heavily invested in manufacturing in the southern US, including nearly $8 billion on an electric vehicle plant in Georgia.
