Hyundai, Kia auto parts supplier in Alabama fined for child labor violations

SL

11/10/2022 19:37

By Mica Rosenberg, Joshua Schneyer and Kristina Cooke
       NEW YORK, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Authorities found children
as young as 13 working at a Korean-operated parts supplier to
automakers Hyundai Motor Co  005380.KS  and Kia Corp
 000270.KS , and have fined the company and a labor recruiter,
the U.S. Department of Labor and the Alabama Department of Labor
said on Tuesday. 
    In August, authorities accused Alexander City, Alabama-based
SL Alabama in federal court of violating child labor laws. 
    The action against SL Alabama, which supplies lights and
mirrors for Hyundai and Kia assembly plants in the U.S. South,
came following a July Reuters article that documented child
labor practices at another auto parts supplier in the state,
Hyundai-owned SMART Alabama LLC. 
     The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) said in a release that
workers aged 13-15 were found at the SL Alabama plant and said
it had fined the company, a unit of Korea's SL Corp  005850.KS ,
around $30,000. SL Alabama agreed to implement new monitoring
and training programs, the federal regulator said. DOL said it
also obtained a court order to prevent the plant from “shipping
or delivering” any goods produced in violation of federal child
labor laws. 
    "Our investigation found SL Alabama engaged in oppressive
child labor," said Kenneth Stripling, DOL's Wage and Hours
Division Director in Birmingham, Alabama, in the statement. 
    In a separate statement on Tuesday, Alabama’s state DOL said
it had levied around $35,000 in total in civil penalties on SL
Alabama and JK USA, a temporary labor recruiting firm. JK USA
employed five minors between the ages of 13 and 16 at the plant,
the state DOL said.
     Earlier coverage by Reuters helped to draw regulators'
scrutiny to the broader network of Korean-operated automotive
plants in Alabama that produce parts that Hyundai and its sister
company Kia use at their flagship U.S. vehicle plants in Alabama
and Georgia.
    SL Alabama told Reuters in a statement that a staffing
agency had furnished some employees to the plant who were not
old enough to work there. SL said it had cooperated with
regulators, terminated its relationship with the staffing firm,
agreed to fines and other corrective actions, and replaced the
president of the facility. 
    SL "has never knowingly employed minors to work at any of
its facilities," the company said. JK USA did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
    Regulators said plant operators are accountable for child
labor violations even when unauthorized employees are brought in
by third-party recruiting firms. 
    "Employers are responsible for knowing who is working in
their facilities," the DOL statement said. 
    Regulators did not accuse Hyundai and Kia of wrongdoing in
the case.
 (Reporting by Mica Rosenberg and Joshua Schneyer in New York
and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco
Editing by Matthew Lewis)
 ((Kristina.Cooke@thomsonreuters.com))