SMART Alabama LLC, a subsidiary that provides parts for Hyundai’s assembly line in Alabama, has been employing child workers as young as 12 amid staffing shortages, according to a Reuters report citing firsthand accounts, factory workers, and police. Pedro Tzi told the outletthat his three children, aged 12, 15, and 14, all worked at the Montgomery factory instead of going to school because the family needed the money. Police from Tzi’s hometown notified the state attorney general’s office about potential child labor abuses after one of Tzi’s kids briefly went missing. One former adult employee told Reuters he knew of around 50 underage workers at the factory. “Consumers should be outraged,” said David Michaels, a former U.S. assistant secretary of labor for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. SMART has strenuously denied the allegations.
