Two former Hyundai megasite construction workers have been awarded tens of thousands of dollars after filing a lawsuit against subcontractors saying they were not paid money they were owed.

Migrant workers Jonathon Rincon and Martin Garcia will be paid a collective $43,000 by a Hyundai subcontractor, which includes unpaid wages, damages, and attorney’s fees.

Rincon and Garcia filed a federal lawsuit against Hyundai subcontractor Sys-Con in August 2024, saying they were never paid raises that they were owed and were never given overtime pay despite regularly working over 40 hours a week.

H&B USA and PPE Trading Co, subcontractors of Sys-Con, were also ultimately named in the lawsuit...

Rincon, who came to the United States from Colombia for work, described...

“It was really hard. They treated us very differently. They talked to us like we were in the Army. They were calling us names, oftentimes ‘undocumented’ and they made us work really hard,” Rincon said.

Rincon also alleged physical abuse by supervisors during his time at the site…

...one subcontractor noting they “do not have a copy of our safety policy in Spanish.”...

Since the issue was originally exposed, ICE raided the site in what Homeland Security Investigations called its largest single-site enforcement operation ever. No charges have been filed, but a spokesperson for the agency said after the raid that labor trafficking charges are not off the table.