In 2022, car manufacturing company Hyundai and its parts suppliers in Alabama, U.S. were found to be illegally employing children to operate heavy equipment.

In July 2022, Reuters reported that SMART, a Hyundai subsidiary in Luverne, Alabama, U.S.A. had hired minors as young as 12 years old to work in one of its metal stamping plants.

State and federal labor laws limit minors younger than 18 from working in metal stamping and pressing jobs near dangerous machinery.

Alabama also requires children 17 and under to be enrolled in school, which some of the underage workers had to forego in order to work long shifts at the plant.

Property records show that the house where some underage workers lived alongside other SL employees is owned by a company registered under the name of the president of the recruiting firm.

Another parts supplier, AJIN [ko], employed more than 10 underage workers according to several employees, including one manager who was told to "focus on production" after reporting the violations to his higher ups.

"[1] On November 22, 2022, inspectors from the state and federal departments of labor conducted a surprise inspection of a Hyundai Glovis warehouse in Montgomery.