Oct 12 (Reuters) - Three workers have died since Hyundai

Motor ( HYMLF ) started construction of its $7.6 billion auto

plant in Georgia in 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported on

Sunday, citing a review of federal records.

Dozens of the company's current and former workers, many of

them safety coordinators who helped oversee construction, told

the newspaper in interviews that the work environment involved

many inexperienced immigrant laborers, often lax safety

standards and frequent accidents.

The plant, which is operated through a joint venture between

Hyundai and South Korea's LG Energy Solution, has

been in the limelight since an immigration raid last month that

detained hundreds of South Korean workers in the largest

single-site enforcement operation in the U.S. Department of

Homeland Security's history.

Apart from the deaths, more than a dozen workers have

suffered serious injuries, including from falling without

wearing harnesses and getting crushed by forklifts, according to

the WSJ.

The workers interviewed by the WSJ said Hyundai did not

ensure that people were properly trained, and safety regulators

did little to prevent worksite violations, the report added.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Hyundai

did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Hyundai said in a statement to the WSJ that it is committed

to following immigration laws and that it doesn't compromise

safety for the sake of speed, adding that the company took steps

to address safety issues in response to incidents during

construction.

"We acted immediately and comprehensively to prevent

anything like this from happening again," Hyundai CEO Jose Munoz

told the newspaper. "I traveled to Georgia to tell our team

directly: Their safety comes before production schedules, before

costs, before profits, before everything."

Construction on the electric vehicle and battery plant,

located in Bryan County about 30 miles west of Savannah, is

ongoing.