By Michael Elkins
Reuters is reporting today that SMART Alabama LLC, a subsidiary metal stamping plant of Hyundai Motor Co (OTC:HYMTF), has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the carmaker's assembly line.
According to the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory, underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at the metal stamping plant.
In a statement Friday, Hyundai said it "does not tolerate illegal employment practices at any Hyundai entity. We have policies and procedures in place that require compliance with all local, state and federal laws."
In a separate statement, SMART said that 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."
Reuters learned of underage workers at the plant following the brief disappearance in February of a Guatemalan migrant child from her family's home in Alabama.
The 13-year-old girl and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked at the plant earlier this year and weren't going to school.
According to interviews, conducted by Reuters, with a dozen former and current plant employees and labor recruiters, these children were among a larger cohort of underage workers who found jobs at the Hyundai-owned supplier over the past few years. Several of these minors, they said, have foregone schooling to work long shifts at the plant.
"Consumers should be outraged," said David Michaels, the former U.S. assistant secretary of labor for OSHA. "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.
The SMART plant builds parts for the popular Elantra, Sonata, and Santa Fe models, vehicles that through June accounted for almost 37% of Hyundai's U.S. sales, according to the carmaker.