India’s carmaker Maruti Suzuki may face uncertainty over future production as one of its

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major component suppliers Denso Haryana is working on redu­ced daily pr­oduction due to an ongoing 12-day long strike.

Denso supplies fuel gasket pumps and multipoint fuel injection systems to Ma­ruti Suzuki. Denso Haryana is one of the four subsidiary firms in India of Japan-ba­sed auto parts mak­er Denso.

On February 17, 36 work­ers at the Denso factory were suspended due to demands of creating an employee la­bour union. These workers started going slow on output at the factory after se­eing that their demand of creating a labour union was not paid heed to since their first request in December 2008.

“Daily production on an average has been lower by 25 per cent since February 17,” a senior official of Denso Ha­ryana, who did not want to be named said.

More than 90 per cent of Denso Haryana output is su­pplied to Maruti, according to the official. Denso makes 3,000 units of parts daily th­at including engine electr­onic control units and multi-point fuel injection systems.

“We are presently receiving 100 per cent supply from Denso Haryana. Whether future production in Maruti will be impacted due to supply constraints will depend on Denso,” managing executive officer (supply chain) Maruti Suzuki S Maitra said.

Maruti Suzuki is gearing up to touch one million units of production through the financial year ending March 31. The firm had last week recalled 106,000 A-Star cars because of a fault in the fuel gasket pump. When filled to the brim, the model’s fuel tank could cause a leak.

Though the manageme­nt at Denso Haryana is not av­erse because of demands by workers of creating an empl­oyee union, the recent going slow of workers at Honda Motorcycle and Scooter Ind­ia’s Manesar fa­ct­ory and the strike at Rico Auto has made the management cautious on employees adopting a si­milar stand. “We don’t want workers to get involved and influen­ced with outside parties like All India Trade Union Congress like what happened at the Honda,” the official said.

Of a total of 354 workers, 115-120 willing workers who do not want to take part in demands of creating a la­bour union are still working at the factory.

“The suspended workers are creating fear in the mi­nds of the willing workers by calling their families and th­reatening them,” the official explained. “We have engag­ed contract workers in pla­ce of the unwilling workers to resume a major part of the output,” the official said.

Satpal Kumar, secretary of the union of the striking workers, said the management is averse to the workers creating an employee un­ion. “We will resume work only if all the suspended employees are taken back,” Ku­mar said. Of the 36 workers suspended, Denso has deci­ded to take back only 20 so far.

On March 4, the firm, suspended workers and la­bour commissioner will have a meeting to decide on future course of action.