The federal workplace safety agency has fined three companies — including the battery plant at Hyundai’s manufacturing facility in Bryan County — approximately $27,000 for violations that contributed to the death of a Korean worker in March.
The fines conclude one of the most gruesome chapters in the construction of the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America, and amount to less than the retail price of a new electric vehicle made at the facility, which has developed a checkered reputation for safety.
The investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was launched after a Korean man, Sunbok You, was torn apart by a forklift at the battery plant, leaving a long bloody trail on the factory floor, according to the Bryan County Sheriff’s report carried out after the incident.
The fatality came just days before the metaplant’s grand opening, where the chief executive of the metaplant and other senior Hyundai Motor Group officials extolled the company’s safety culture.
The fines were assessed against Beyond Iron Construction LLC., which was helping construct the battery plant; SBY America, which employed the Korean man; and HL-GA Battery, the joint venture between Korean industrial giants Hyundai Motor Group and LG Battery Solutions. The battery plant was the target of the September raid at the plant by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies.
OSHA inspectors concluded that the two Georgia-based companies, Beyond Iron and SBY, allowed forklift drivers to exceed speed limits and failed to ensure enough safety measures. The battery company, meanwhile, was cited for failing to submit required reports after injuries. The original fines exceeded $160,000 but were reduced on appeal, according to OSHA reports.
The fatalities are part of what safety managers and documents suggest has been a culture of lax workplace safety. In a 2024 investigation by The Current GA, which found that approximately 10 serious accidents had not been reported by various Korean suppliers at the Ellabell facility between January 2023 and May 2024.
One of those incidents included a Korean engineer being crushed in a conveyor belt he was helping to install at the Hyundai Glovis facility in 2024. The man was still alive when first responders flew him to the hospital. It is not known whether he later survived his injuries, which included a crushed torso.
Three men have died on site during the construction of the metaplant in Ellabell. The first was a construction worker, Victor Gamboa, who was killed in 2023 after a fall due to faulty safety equipment. His employer, Eastern Constructors Inc., was originally fined approximately $160,000 for allowing Gamboa to use “a defective body harness that had notable indicators of damage and deterioration.” The fine was reduced on appeal to approximately $20,000. HMGMA, the legal entity in charge of the metaplant, later severed ties with the construction firm.
The other death occurred in May 2025, when an American worker was crushed by a load that fell from a forklift.
In September, Hyundai announced it was installing a new official at the site whose responsibilities included coordinating safety measures across all the suppliers at the metaplant. That development came days after the OSHA fine against HI-GA Battery for its violations cited in the March fatality and the federal raid that resulted in more than 400 workers being detained and deported, including approximately 300 Koreans.
At the time of the federal raid, the United Automobile Workers union issued a statement criticizing Hyundai for dangerous work conditions at the metaplant.
Earlier this month, a nonprofit labor organization in California filed a lawsuit against Hyundai and Kia, its manufacturing facility in Montgomery, Ala., and its supplier plant in west Georgia for alleged human trafficking and child labor abuses. The suit claims such practices give Hyundai and its subsidiaries unfair advantage in pricing when the car companies bid for state contracts.
Last week, Hyundai Chief Executive José Muñoz said the White House phoned him to apologize for September’s immigration raid. Speaking at a conference of business leaders in Singapore, Muñoz said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp had also called him. “I don’t know what happened. This is not state jurisdiction,” Muñoz quoted Kemp as saying.Citing the need to “bring in talent” to the U.S., President Donald Trump appeared earlier this month to condemn the raid. He told Fox News host Laura Ingraham in an interview there were not enough American workers to perform the “very complicated” and “dangerous” task of building the car batteries.