"Child workers found throughout Hyundai-Kia supply chain in Alabama," 16 Dec. 2022

At least four major suppliers of Hyundai Motor Co and sister Kia Corp have employed child labor at Alabama factories in recent years, a Reuters investigation found, and state and federal agencies are probing whether kids have worked at as many as a half dozen additional manufacturers throughout the automakers’ supply chain in the southern U.S. state.

... In two separate statements sent by the same public relations firm, Hwashin and Ajin [suppliers to Hyundai and Kia] said their policies forbid the hiring of any worker not of legally employable age. Using identical language, both companies said they hadn’t, “to the best of our knowledge,” hired underage workers.

... A Labor Department spokesman, Eric Lucero, told Reuters that the agency’s Wage and Hour Division has an open investigation into Ajin, but declined to confirm whether the probe was related to child labor.

In its statement, Ajin said it “will cooperate fully” with any investigations by regulators and law enforcement.

... Hyundai, in a statement, told Reuters it “does not condone or tolerate violations of labor law” and requires that “our suppliers and business partners strictly adhere to the law.” Kia, for its part, said it “strongly condemns any practice of child labor and does not tolerate any unlawful or unethical workplace practices internally or within our business partners and suppliers.”

... In-house human rights policies, posted by both brands online, prohibit child labor at Hyundai and Kia facilities and among their suppliers, too. Alabama and U.S. law restrict factory work for people under age 16, and all workers under 18 are forbidden from many hazardous jobs in auto plants, where metal presses, cutting machines and speeding forklifts can endanger life and limb.