An ongoing investigation by global news agency Reuters claims to have unearthed more examples of children working for Hyundai-Kia owned parts suppliers in the US.
The number of car parts suppliers in the US caught up in a child labour scandal has expanded, according to reports by respected news agency Reuters and industry journal Automotive News.
It has been reported at least four US companies which supply parts to and are owned by South Korean car giant Hyundai–Kia have now been caught up in the scandal which was originally uncovered in July 2022.
Earlier this year, authorities in the US were alerted to multiple instances of child labour being used at a parts-supply subsidiary of car giant Hyundai-Kia.
The initial investigation by news agency Reuters unearthed examples of children as young as 12 working at the Hyundai-Kia parts manufacturing facility, which has previously clocked up violations for “crush and amputation hazards.”
Now, new details have emerged about further possible breaches involving other Hyundai-Kia parts suppliers.
Automotive News reported over the weekend another Hyundai-Kia parts supplier – owned by Hwashin America Corp and based in the south Alabama town of Greenville – allegedly employed a 14-year-old Guatemalan girl earlier this year assembling auto body components, according to interviews with family and law enforcement noted by US media.
Another informant reportedly told reporters from Reuters that Ajin Industrial Company in the Alabama town of Cusseta had employed at least 10 underage workers at that facility.
The two latest parts suppliers to be caught up in the scandal issued statements saying “to the best of our knowledge” they had not hired underage workers, Automotive News reported.
US-based media say authorities have investigated at least 10 parts suppliers in Alabama that work for or are owned by Hyundai-Kia. To date, four of those 10 have been identified as possibly employing underage workers.
Representatives for Hyundai and Kia in North America issued statements to local media condemning the behaviour certain parts suppliers have been accused of.
In the original news-breaking coverage in July 2022, Reuters news agency reporters Joshua Schneyer, Mica Rosenberg, and Kristina Cooke wrote of one of the examples they unearthed: “The girl, who turns 14 this month, and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked at the plant earlier this year and weren’t going to school, according to people familiar with their employment.”
As previously reported, local police helped locate the missing girl following a public alert.
“One former worker … an adult migrant who left for another auto industry job last year, said there were around 50 underage workers between the different plant shifts, adding that he knew some of them personally,” the Reuters news agency reported in July 2022.
“Another former adult worker … a US citizen who also left the plant last year, said she worked alongside about a dozen minors on her shift.”
In its original news story, Reuters said it was “unable to determine the precise number of children who may have worked at (one of the factories subject to investigation), what the minors were paid, or other terms of their employment.”
