Addressng Factory Labour Shortages : Child Labour

"This practice of providing and employing underage and undocumented workers is appalling."

"Employee safety, especially the safety of children, is a top priority."

"These businesses violated the law and put these children at risk, and it will not be tolerated in Alabama."

Fitzgerald Washington, Alabama Department of Labor 

"[Hyundai intends to] sever relations [with the two Alabama supplier plants under scrutiny for underage labour] as soon as possible."

"Hyundai is pushing to stop using third party labor suppliers and oversee hiring directly."

Jose Munoz, Hyundai Motor Co. global chief operating officer

The SMART Alabama, LLC auto parts plant and Hyundai Motor Co. subsidiary, in Luverne, Alabama, U.S., July 14, 2022. Joshua Schneyer/Reuters

 Now that makes the news, doesn't it? A top automaker under investigation for deploying children in their parts manufacturing plants. It's October -- back in July Reuters revealed an investigation that led to the verification that child labour was being used at two plants in Alabama. Evidently little notice was taken. Until a second-time-over revelation that the use of child labour in American-located, Korean-controlled factories was still ongoing. 

In line with international standards, Hyundai had committed in its Human Rights Charter which also reflected its own code of conduct for suppliers that the use of child labour violated its commitment to basic human rights. Now, it is once again revealed that two plants located in Alabama, SMART Alabama and SL Alabama, both Korean-operated, were inexplicably using the labour of children as young as 12 and 13 years of age.

The company's American supply chain has thus been contaminated by the fact that refugee children from Guatemala were considered fair game in a short labour market to be employed in manufacturing plants. A kind of backwardness that's difficult to square with current labour practices. Its chief operating office is appalled, quite incredulous, shamed on behalf of his employer, Hyundai Motors. No one, evidently in the company's elite offices had any idea ...

The July investigative report by Reuturs documented children working at a metal stamping plant in rural Luverne, Alabama: SMART Alabama, LLC. Owned and operated by Hyundai. Not so smart, after all. It's where a 12-year-old was found working in the plant alongside other teen. In July, in view of the Reuters report, the Alabama state Department of Labor coordinated with federal agencies to investigate SMART Alabama.

Subsequently another investigation on child labour was launched at a second Hyundai regional supplier plant also Korean-operated: SL Alabama. There children as young as age 13 were hard at work. Mr. Munoz assured in a Reuters interview that his company has every intention to sever relations with the two supplier plants deploying underage labour "as soon as possible". Evidently there had been no reaction from either U.S. authorities or consequently Hyundai back in July; with the second revelation they're all now engaged.

A broader investigation into Hyundai's entire US. auto parts supplier network has been ordered by Mr. Munoz for the possibility that the use of child labour casts a wider web in a search for labour law violations as well as "to ensure compliance". It's normally called damage control in a very embarrassing situation condemned outright as a singularly unpalatable violation of children's rights -- to be protected and not manipulated and exploited.

In total in the United States, Hyundai has a network of dozens of mostly Korean-owned auto-parts plants supplying the company's massive vehicle assembly plant in Montgomery Alabama. Close to half of the 738,000 vehicles produced by the automaker and sold in the United States came out of its flagship 1.8 billion U.S. assembly plant last year. Recruiting or staffing firms in the region had hired Guatemalan migrant children.

 

Damage control: Visitors look at an electric global modular platform for Hyundai Ioniq 5 at an auto show in Asia. The South Korean auto giant says it intends to sever relations with the two Alabama supplier plants under scrutiny for deploying underage labour as soon as possible. — Bloomberg

 

 SL Alabama assured that it had taken "aggressive steps to remedy the situation" immediately it become aware that a subcontractor had provided underage workers. Taking immediate steps to terminate its relationship with the staffing firm, and undertake more direct control itself of the hiring process. Mr. Munoz's public address of the situation coincided with a letter from an investor group working with union pension funds, looking for a response to reports of child labour at U.S. parts suppliers while warning of potential reputational damage to the Korean automaker.

 

A sign advertising jobs stands near the SMART Alabama, LLC auto parts plant and Hyundai Motor Co. subsidiary, in Luverne, Alabama U.S. July 14, 2022. REUTERS/Joshua Schneyer