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Fed probe finds 13-year-old working at Hyundai plant in Alabama
The U.S. Department of Labor is suing South Korean auto giant Hyundai Motor Co., an auto parts plant and a recruiting company after finding a 13-year-old child illegally working on an assembly line in Alabama.
The agency filed a complaint Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama to require that Hyundai, SMART Alabama, an auto parts company, and Best Practice Service, a staffing agency, relinquish any profits related to the use of child labor.
The move comes after federal investigators found a 13-year-old working up to 50-60 hours a week on an assembly line in Luverne, operating machines that formed sheet metal into auto body parts, the Labor Department said.
“A 13-year-old working on an assembly line in the United States of America shocks the conscience,” Jessica Looman, the DOL’s wage and hour division administrator, said in a release.
The Korean automaker is liable for repeated child labor violations at SMART Alabama, one of its subsidiaries, between July 11, 2021, through Feb. 1, 2022, according to the department. The child was allegedly dispatched to work at the component parts provider by Best Practice, it said.
According to the complaint, SMART told the staffing firm that “two additional employees were not welcome back at the facility due to their appearance and other physical characteristics, which suggested they were also underage.”
“Companies cannot escape liability by blaming suppliers or staffing companies for child labor violations when they are in fact also employers themselves,” Seema Nanda, solicitor of the Labor Department said in a news release.
Hyundai did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, a spokesperson told other media outlets including the Washington Post that the Labor Department is attempting to impose “an unprecedented legal theory that would unfairly hold Hyundai accountable for the actions of its suppliers and set a concerning precedent for other automotive companies and manufacturers.”
The case marks the first time the labor department has sued a major company for allegedly violating child labor law at a subcontractor, and stems from a government probe and separate Reuters report that unveiled widespread and illegal use of migrant child laborers at suppliers of Hyundai in Alabama.
Reuters reported in 2022 that children as young as 12 were working for a Hyundai subsidiary and in other parts suppliers for the company in the Southern state.
The wire service reported on underaged workers at Smart after the brief disappearance in February 2022 of a Guatemalan migrant child from her family’s home in Alabama. The 13-year-old girl and two brothers, 12 and 15, worked at the plant in 2022 and were not going to school, sources told Reuters at the time.
The Labor Department in fiscal 2023 investigated 955 cases with child labor violations involving 5,792 kids nationwide, including 502 employed in violation of hazardous occupation standards.
Some minors have suffered serious and fatal injuries on the job, including 16-year-old Michael Schuls, who died after getting pulled into machinery at a Wisconsin sawmill last summer. Another 16-year-old worker also perished last summer after getting caught in a machine at a poultry plant in Mississippi.
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A food company known for popular grocery store condiments has recalled a package of tortilla strips that may be contaminated with wheat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday. The product is meant to be gluten-free.
Sugar Foods, a manufacturing and distribution corporation focused mainly on various toppings, artificial sweeteners and snacks, issued the recall for the “Santa Fe Style” version of tortilla strips sold by the brand Fresh Gourmet.
“People who have a wheat allergy or severe sensitivity to wheat run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction if they consume the product,” said Sugar Foods in an announcement posted by the FDA.
Packages of these tortilla strips with an expiration date as late as June 20, 2025, could contain undeclared wheat, meaning the allergen is not listed as an ingredient on the label. The Fresh Gourmet product is marketed as gluten-free.
Sugar Foods said a customer informed the company on Nov. 19 that packages of the tortilla strips actually contained crispy onions, another Fresh Gourmet product normally sold in a similar container. The brand’s crispy onion product does contain wheat, and that allergen is noted on the label.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
No illnesses tied to the packaging mistake have been reported, according to the announcement from Sugar Foods. However, the company is still recalling the tortilla strips as a precaution. The contamination issue may have affected products distributed between Sept. 30 and Nov. 11 in 22 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
Sugar Foods has advised anyone with questions about the recall to contact the company’s consumer care department by email or phone.
CBS News reached out to Sugar Foods for more information but did not receive an immediate reply.
This is the latest in a series of food product recalls affected because of contamination issues, although the others involved harmful bacteria. Some recent, high-profile incidents include an E. coli outbreak from organic carrots that killed at least one person in California, and a listeria outbreak that left an infant dead in California and nine people hospitalized across four different states, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The E. coli outbreak is linked to multiple different food brands while the listeria outbreak stemmed from a line of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products sold by Yu-Shang Foods.
