The Labor Department on Thursday sued Hyundai over its use of child labor in Alabama, holding the automaker responsible for employing children in its supply chain, including a 13-year-old girl who worked up to 60 hours a week making parts. Of automobiles. .
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Montgomery, Alabama, the department said Hyundai was responsible for employing children at a Smart Alabama factory in Luverne, Alabama, which produces parts such as body panels that are sent to a factory in hyundai. in Montgomery. The lawsuit also claimed that an employment agency, Best Practice Service, recruited the children to work at the supplier’s plant.
In a statement, Hyundai said the child labor was “not consistent with the standards and values we uphold as a company.” He added that the Labor Department used “an unprecedented legal theory that would unfairly hold Hyundai responsible for the actions of its suppliers.”
Smart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Representatives for Best Practice Service, which no longer operates, could not be reached for comment.
From July 2021 to February 2022, a 13-year-old girl worked at the Smart plant, where she was hired to work for Best Practice Service, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit also alleged that two other children worked at the plant.
The Labor Department said that by employing children at its supplier, Hyundai was violating the “hot goods” provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prevents interstate commerce in goods “that were produced in violation of the minimum wage, overtime or child labor” of that law.
“Businesses cannot avoid responsibility by blaming suppliers or staffing companies for child labor violations when, in fact, they are also employers,” Seema Nanda, legal director of the Department of Labor, said in a statement Thursday.
The lawsuit comes after investigations by Reuters and The New York Times documented the use of child labor by auto companies’ suppliers. In 2022, Reuters found that Smart Alabama had used child labor in its facilities and that Kia, which is part of the same South Korean conglomerate as Hyundai, had also used child labor in the South. A 2023 investigation by The Times found children employed at suppliers to General Motors and Ford Motor.
Hyundai imports many of its vehicles from South Korea, but has invested heavily in factories in the South, spending nearly $8 billion on an electric vehicle plant in Georgia. The United Automobile Workers union has said it hopes to organize workers at the Hyundai plant in Montgomery.