OSHA investigating one Hyundai affiliate in Georgia

Caption

Construction of the Hyundai Metaplant, on March 20, 2024, in Bryan County, Ga.

Credit: Justin Taylor / The Current

Amira McKee, The Current

The federal agency overseeing workplace safety is investigating a Hyundai affiliate, Glovis EV Logistics America, along with two subcontractors at the Korean company’s Savannah-area manufacturing site after a worker was crushed by a conveyor belt and suffered life-threatening injuries. 

The investigation, which was launched the same day as the incident, May 31, is ongoing and also involves Hyundai construction site subcontractors SFA Engineering Corp. and Il Sun Systems, according to a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson. 

The conveyor belt accident is one of 12 U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) investigations into workplace safety at the Hyundai site in Ellabell since construction at Georgia’s largest economic development project broke ground in January 2023, the spokesperson told The Current. 

The OSHA confirmation came after The Current revealed that at least 20 traumatic injuries among workers at the manufacturing facility construction site, home to seven Hyundai affiliates and the workplace of dozens of subcontractors. The site has seen at least 13 traumatic injuries in the first six months of 2024, according to public documents obtained by The Current. 

OSHA has no record of receiving reports for at least four of these injuries, according to the Department of Labor, including incidents in which an employee’s leg was run over by a forklift and another in which a worker was struck between the eyes with a metal pipe. It is possible these incidents may not have met federal reporting requirements.

The rapid pace of construction comes as Hyundai and its suppliers are scrambling to bring its first car off the assembly line before the end of the year to be eligible for some of the federal subsidies offered to electric vehicle makers by the Biden administration. 

Yet according to previous reporting by The Current, workers are paying the price for this ambitious goal. Before The Current’s investigation, the site’s principal company Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA), and other companies building the site had publicly acknowledged only two worker injuries. 

Glovis, a Hyundai logistics operations affiliate, did not respond to requests for comment. SFA Engineering Corp., a Korean-based company, did not previously respond to requests for comment, nor did Il Sun Systems, which is a private company with a mailing address in Bloomingdale, according to OSHA documents. 

Hyundai, affiliates tracked separately

HMGMA, which is colloquially referred to as “the Metaplant,” is a newly formed entity contracted with Georgia to receive $2.1 billion in tax deferments, subsidized construction costs, and other perks. In return, it has promised to create 8,500 jobs together with seven Hyundai companies on the site who are legally distinct from each other but will work in tandem to produce Hyundai’s electric vehicles. 

Caption

The water tower at the Hyundai Metaplant.

Credit: HMGMA

HMGMA previously told The Current that the separate legal entities employed at the site are independently responsible for complying with OSHA standards. It did not answer a question about whether it tracked site-wide worker injuries.

The Current’s previous reporting on worker safety at the Hyundai site relied on public records from emergency services and local fire departments and interviews with previous and current employees to chronicle injuries that Hyundai and other companies have not made public. 

In a statement after the Aug. 14 story was published, the Department of Labor clarified the status of OSHA investigations related to the Hyundai site and said the agency is following standard procedure for responding to reports of site injuries. 

The agency must levy any applicable citations within six months of an incident. Since January 2023, OSHA has determined two companies have violated federal law at the manufacturing site.

Previous confirmation of OSHA’s oversight of the investigations at the Hyundai site was hindered by bureaucratic complexity and administrative errors by the agency’s database. For example: in OSHA’s public inspection database the investigations into both Il Sun Systems and Glovis EV Logistics America, a subcontractor on the site and a Hyundai affiliate, are listed with addresses at 10484 US 280 in Bloomingdale, Ga., though Hyundai’s site is located at 10484 US 280 in Ellabell, Ga. 

The work site addresses have been updated as of Sept. 3, after The Current reached out to OSHA. 

OSHA guidelines vary for reporting injuries

OSHA focuses its inspection resources on targeting hazardous workplaces based on imminent danger, fatalities, severe illnesses and injuries, and worker complaints and referrals, the spokesperson wrote. Not all injuries are handled by an on-site inspection.

Following a “severe injury,” which OSHA policy defines as a fatality, in-patient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye as a result of a work-place incident, all employers must notify OSHA. In the case of a fatality the incident must be reported within 8 hours, while reports of other severe injuries must be within 24 hours of the incident. 

Injuries at the Hyundai site such as the worker suffering an amputation in a conveyor belt or another worker dying from a 60-foot fall on the site in April 2023 would qualify as these “severe injuries.”

After the agency receives a severe injury report, as was the case in this incident, a local OSHA office determines whether to pursue one of two enforcement actions. One pathway triggers a workplace inspection by an OSHA compliance officer. The other pathway, known as a rapid response investigation (RRI), an  employer conducts its own investigation into the work-related incident and shares its findings with OSHA in lieu of an on-site inspection.

When a worker sustained an “obvious” broken arm after being flung from a boom lift 30 feet in the air on March 21, the employer JDA Georgia Inc. reported to Savannah’s OSHA office, which determined the case should be handled as an RRI, according to a Department of Labor spokesperson. 

JDA Georgia Inc. conducted its own investigation into the incident, and shared it with the agency. OSHA deemed the response “satisfactory,” and the case was closed on April 22, 2024.

OSHA opted to conduct an on-site inspection after another worker fell 15 to 20 feet from a platform and was airlifted off the site on Feb. 16. The agency initiated an inspection on Feb. 21, during which an OSHA compliance officer will typically tour the portions of the workplace covered by the inspection, and look for hazards that could cause employee injury or illness. 

The inspection into Sungwon Georgia Corp. resulted in OSHA levying two serious violations and one other violation to the employer for work-place hazards on the Hyundai site, specifically regarding failures to protect employees from falls.

Sungwon Georgia Corp. was issued a fine of $23,490, but agreed to an informal settlement on Aug. 13. As a result, Sungwon Georgia’s citation for exposing employees to fall hazards has been deleted from OSHA’s database.

But severe injury reports are not the only means by which OSHA launches an investigation. Several of the investigations after incidents at the Hyundai construction site followed referrals, or an allegation of a potential workplace hazard or violation received from one of many sources such as a government agency, an employer representative, or a whistleblower, among others. 

In the case of a worker at the site who was found by emergency medical personnel lying face down after falling from a crane, the Department of Labor told The Current that the incident was not reported by the employer, Changwon America Inc., as it did not meet the criteria for severe injury reporting. 

However, OSHA initiated a referral inspection of Changwon on Nov. 6, 2023. The inspection was closed on April 16, 2024, and OSHA issued no citations to the employer.

The investigation into Glovis EV Logistics America was also initiated in response to a referral. 

This story comes to GPB through a reporting partnership with The Current.