Michaels visited Korea in 2015, and said he warned Hyundai executives that its heavy demand for "just-in-time" parts was causing safety lapses. Michaels, who is now a professor at George Washington University, said safety at U.S.-based Hyundai suppliers was a recurrent concern at OSHA during his eight years leading the agency until he left in 2017. Alabama law also requires children 17 and under to be enrolled in school. 'Way too young'Īlabama and federal laws limit minors under age 18 from working in metal stamping and pressing operations such as SMART, where proximity to dangerous machinery can put them at risk. In Enterprise, home to a bustling poultry industry, Reuters earlier this year chronicled how a Guatemalan minor, who migrated to the United States alone, found work at a local chicken processing plant read more. labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, labor experts told Reuters there are heightened risks that children, especially undocumented migrants, could end up in workplaces that are hazardous and illegal for minors. "They should know that these cars are being built, at least in part, by workers who are children and need to be in school rather than risking life and limb because their families are desperate for income," he added.Īt a time of U.S. assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, with whom Reuters shared the findings of its reporting.
"Consumers should be outraged," said David Michaels, the former U.S. The company recently said it will expand in the United States, planning over $5 billion in investments including a new electric vehicle factory near Savannah, Georgia.
In a "human rights policy" posted online, Hyundai says it forbids child labor throughout its workforce, including suppliers. supply chain could spark consumer, regulatory and reputational backlash for one of the most powerful and profitable automakers in the world. The revelation of child labor in Hyundai's U.S. Reuters was unable to determine the precise number of children who may have worked at the SMART factory, what the minors were paid or other terms of their employment. Most of the current and former employees who spoke with Reuters did so on the condition of anonymity. Several of these minors, they said, have foregone schooling in order to work long shifts at the plant, a sprawling facility with a documented history of health and safety violations, including amputation hazards. Pedro Tzi's children, who have now enrolled for the upcoming school term, were among a larger cohort of underage workers who found jobs at the Hyundai-owned supplier over the past few years, according to interviews with a dozen former and current plant employees and labor recruiters. It's unclear whether the office or other investigators have contacted SMART or Hyundai about possible violations. Mike Lewis, a spokesperson at the Alabama attorney general's office, declined to comment. Instead, the force notified the state attorney general's office after the incident, James Sanders, an Enterprise police detective, told Reuters. The police force in Enterprise, about 45 miles from the plant in Luverne, doesn't have jurisdiction to investigate possible labor-law violations at the factory. Reuters is not using her name in this article because she is a minor. The police, who helped locate the missing girl, at the time of their search identified her by name in a public alert. Police in the Tzi family's adopted hometown of Enterprise also told Reuters that the girl and her siblings had worked at SMART. Their father, Pedro Tzi, confirmed these people's account in an interview with Reuters. The girl, who turns 14 this month, and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked at the plant earlier this year and weren't going to school, according to people familiar with their employment. Reuters learned of underage workers at the Hyundai-owned supplier following the brief disappearance in February of a Guatemalan migrant child from her family's home in Alabama. SMART didn't answer specific questions about the workers cited in this story or on-the-job scenes they and other people familiar with the factory described. SMART, in a statement, said it follows federal, state and local laws and "denies any allegation that it knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment." The company said it relies on temporary work agencies to fill jobs and expects "these agencies to follow the law in recruiting, hiring, and placing workers on its premises." Hyundai didn't respond to phone calls or emails from Reuters seeking comment.