Hyundai subsidiary Smart Alabama LLC allegedly employed underage workers as young as 12 at its plant in Luverne, Alabama, according to a Portal investigation. The Smart metal stamping plant makes parts for the Hyundai Elantra, Santa Fe and Sonata models, which are manufactured at the automaker’s flagship US plant in nearby Montgomery.
Alabama law prohibits minors under the age of 18 from working in metal stamping and stamping plants such as Smart, particularly because of the hazards posed by the machinery. However, the employment of minors is not the only problem of the smart factory. The Portal report notes that there is “a documented history of health and safety violations, including amputation hazards.” Despite these dangers, sources familiar with the matter paint a picture of a company willing to look the other way on employment eligibility as long as its products get to market on time. Portal writes:
A former SMART worker, an adult migrant who left last year for another job in the auto industry, said there were about 50 underage workers between the different factory shifts, adding that he knew some of them personally. Another former adult worker at SMART, a US citizen who also left the plant last year, said she worked with about a dozen minors on her shift.
Another former employee, Tabatha Moultry, 39, worked on the SMART assembly line for several years until 2019. Moultry said the plant has high turnover and is increasingly dependent on migrant workers to keep up with high production demands. She said she remembered working with a migrant girl who “looked like 11 or 12 years old”.
The girl would come to work with her mother, Moultry said. When Moultry asked her real age, the girl said she was 13. “She was way too young to work at this plant or any plant,” Moultry said.
Portal
When asked for comment, a Hyundai representative gave The Drive an official statement: “Hyundai does not tolerate illegal employment practices at any Hyundai company. We have policies and procedures that require compliance with all local, state and federal laws.”
Recruiters and current and former employees at the plant told Portal that many of the minors found employment at Smart through recruitment agencies. While there are staffing agencies that go overboard, critics say hiring through those agencies can be a workaround to pin the blame on the agency when it comes to determining whether an employee is fit for work.
Portal reporters first learned about Smart’s underage workers after a 14-year-old Guatemalan migrant child disappeared from his family’s home in Enterprise, Alabama. After discovering that the girl and her two brothers had worked at the factory, the local Enterprise Police Department referred the case to the Attorney General to investigate possible labor law violations. A spokesman for the Alabama Attorney General declined to comment to Portal on the matter.
Smart declined to address any of Portal’ specific stories, saying it denies “any claim that it knowingly employed anyone who was ineligible for employment.” While acknowledging the use of temp agencies to fill vacancies at the factory, Smart’s representative told Portal that the company “must comply with the law with those agencies when recruiting, hiring and placing workers on its premises.”
Hyundai is one of the most profitable automakers in the world and plans to continue expanding in the United States, starting with a $5.5 billion plant in Georgia focused on electric vehicles.
“Consumers should be outraged,” David Michaels, former Labor Secretary at the Occupational Safety and Health Agency, told Portal. “You should know that these cars are being built, at least in part, by workers who are children and have to go to school, rather than risking life and limb because their families are desperate for income.”
You can read Portal’ full report here.
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