US DOL files complaint against Hyundai

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) filed a complaint against Hyundai and two other Alabama companies for illegally employing children. The complaint was filed on Thursday, May 30, 2024, and includes a Hyundai assembly and manufacturing plant in Alabama. 

The US DOL filed the complaint after its Wage and Hour Division found a 13-year-old child working at an assembly line in Luverne, Alabama. 

“A 13-year-old working on an assembly line in the United States of America shocks the conscience,” said Wage and Hour Division Administrator Jessica Looman. “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.”

Based on the Division’s investigation, the child was working up to 50-60 hours per week at the plant, operating machines for sheet metal for auto parts. The Department names three companies as its defendants in the complaint: Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama LLC, SMART Alabama LLC, and Best Practice Service, LLC. 

The investigation found that Best Practice Service sent the underage worker to SMART Alabama, a company that provides components to Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama. The complaint states that all three companies jointly employed the child. The Department alleges that the three companies willfully and repeatedly violated child labor provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act between July 11, 2021, through February 1, 2022. 

“The Department of Labor’s complaint seeks to hold all three employers accountable in the supply chain,” said Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda. “Companies cannot escape liability by blaming suppliers or staffing companies for child labor violations when they are in fact also employers themselves.”

Read the complaint below!

US DOL Files Complaint Against Hyundai by Maria Merano on Scribd

If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via X @Writer_01001101.