The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) sued Hyundai’s first assembly and manufacturing plant in the country and two of its partners Wednesday, alleging the three companies illegally employed children, a court document showed.
The DOL sought an injunction to prevent Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA), vehicle parts manufacturer SMART Alabama and staffing agency Best Practice Service (BPS) from violating child labor laws in the future, the federal legal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama revealed. The DOL also requested the court require the companies to “disgorge profits attributable to the oppressive child labor,” according to the document.
The DOL, represented by Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, alleged that the companies “employed oppressive child labor” while helping to produce cars for sale in the U.S. from sometime around July 11, 2021, to approximately February 1, 2022.
A 13-year-old girl, identified as EC, allegedly worked with metal stamping presses in a SMART assembly line in Luverne, Alabama “up to 50 to 60 hours per week.” BPS provided the teenager to SMART even though BPS “knew or had reason to know” the teenager was a minor, the DOL alleged.
“Instead of attending middle school, she worked on an assembly line making parts,” the DOL alleged in the complaint. “Those parts were shipped to Montgomery, Alabama, where they ended up on vehicles that were ultimately sold to consumers throughout the country.”
Certain other minors also worked for the companies, the allegations continued. (RELATED: Ford Shareholders Reject Proposal To Audit Child Labor In Electric Vehicle Supply Chain)
We filed a complaint to prevent 3 Alabama companies, including a @Hyundai assembly and manufacturing plant, from employing children illegally. The complaint also requests that the court require the companies to surrender profits related to the use of oppressive child labor. 1/2 pic.twitter.com/QINqfqZpQU
— U.S. Department of Labor (@USDOL) May 30, 2024
All three companies were liable given that BPS supplied labor to SMART, which in turn oversaw the minors’ daily output that then was shipped to HMMA, according to the complaint. Hyundai Motor America, HMMA’s parent company, owned 72.45% of SMART, Inc., SMART’s parent company, the complaint observed. SMART was reliant on HMMA for financial, executive and technical support, according to the complaint. HMMA also received all or nearly all of the vehicle parts manufactured by SMART during the period in question and “indirectly controlled and supervised the minor employee(s)”, the DOL further alleged.
“After it was discovered that EC was employed at the facility in Luverne, SMART informed BPS that two additional employees were not welcome back at the facility due to their appearance and other physical characteristics, which suggested they were also underage,” the complaint partly read.
SMART became ITAC Alabama Nov. 1, 2023 — a time not covered in the lawsuit, according to the complaint. SMART became ITAC following a reorganization after SMART’s 20-year-long operation, according to ITAC’s website.
HMMA is Hyundai’s first assembly and manufacturing plant in the U.S., according to HMMA’s website. Worth $1.8 billion, HMMA’s 3.4-million square-foot manufacturing plant was opened May 20, 2005, the website noted.
“Child labor is an unfortunate reality in the United States today,” the complaint observed.
“A 13-year-old working on an assembly line in the United States of America shocks the conscience,” said DOL Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman, according to a DOL press release.
“As we work to stop illegal child labor where we find it, we also continue to ensure that all employers are held accountable for violating the law,” Looman reportedly added.
