As federal and state investigators look into a report of children working in an Alabama auto supplier factory, activists say the story highlights a growing concern - that children are being used to fill workforce gaps since the coming of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reuters reported last month that children as young as 12 have been recently employed at the SMART Alabama plant in Luverne.
SMART Alabama has supplied parts for Hyundai’s Montgomery plant since 2003.
The story of the children came to light following the February 3 disappearance of a 14-year-old Guatemalan migrant child in Alabama, the news service stated.
According to Reuters, the child and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked for the plant. After the publicity generated by the February disappearance case, SMART reportedly dismissed several underage workers, according to former employees.
Both Hyundai and SMART Alabama have denied the Reuters story’s allegations, Hyundai telling The Wall Street Journal that there is “no evidence that there is any truth” to the report.
A 2021 UNICEF report estimated that about 160 million children around the world are employed in some type of job, with about half that number ranging in age from five to 11 years, many involved in potentially hazardous labor.
Reid Maki is the director of child labor advocacy at the National Consumer’s League, as well as the coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition, an organization made up of about 37 groups that work on child labor issues.
Maki...
Medicare and Medicaid provide health care coverage to millions of Americans and are aggressively protected by federal and state authorities. The Department of Health and Human Services Office of In...