Work at India?s auto hub, the Gurgaon-Manesar belt, was thrown out of gear on Tuesday after workers of around 70 auto companies, including major component makers, joined the labour unrest by workers of Rico Auto and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI).

Apprehending a longer standoff, the country?s top four-wheeler and two-wheeler makers ? Maruti Suzuki India and Hero Honda ? have started putting in place contingency plans.

Unofficial estimates put the total number of workers who stayed away from work at over one lakh. Police had to invoke Section 144 of CrPC, that bans assembly of over five persons, to counter the agitation. Senior officials of the state govenement?s labour department and the Gurgaon deputy commissioner set up a committee to tackle the dispute.

Despite Rico Auto, operations at other leading component makers like Lumax, Sunbeam, Caparo Maruti, Delphi and Gabriel were also impacted. An Assocham release has put the impact of the strike at Rs 500 crore a day.

The strike got off to a violent start on Tuesday with angry workers assaulting a senior official of Rico in the morning. Rico and Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) reported zero attendance on during the day.

Maruti Suzuki India, however, said its operations were not impacted. Most company managements have cited demand for wage hikes as the main reason for the protests, while on the other hand, the employee unions are blaming the management for forcefully locking them outside the factory.

Talking to FE, a Maruti spokesperson said that all these are crucial suppliers and it will resort to sourcing from alternate areas in case the unrest continues. However, the company?s internal operations have not been hurt with all employees reporting for work.

Rico Auto and Sunbeam are Hero Honda?s major vendors. The company?s operations at the Gurgaon plant during the morning shift were impacted due to shortage of supplies. ?The ongoing workers? problem at some of the auto component suppliers? plants have affected our operations. We hope the industrial environment in the region will return to normalcy soon,? said a Hero Honda spokesperson.

An analyst said if the agitation intensifies, manufacturing can shift to other plants. Hero Honda produces around 11,000 vehicles per day from Gurgoan and Bawal plants and it?s Haridwar facility has a production capacity of 4,000 units per day.?

However, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), which has seen production go down by 50% in the last one month due to internal labour issues, does not see an impact of vendors? strike as the company has enough supplies due to the slowdown in production, said a company official.

Ajit Kumar Yadav, a worker at Rico, had died during group clashes at the company plant on Sunday, prompting employees of Maruti, Microtech, Sunbeam, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, Lumax and Automax, among others, to join the protest on Tuesday.

When contacted, officials of Rico told FE that as per the company?s HR policy, a compensation of Rs 5 lakh has already been announced for the victim?s family and the company will also provide a job his wife.

Abhay Jain, public relations officer of the company, said, ?The compensation was announced on Sunday and we are ready to resolve the matter. But the workers are not listening to the management. Out of the 3,500 workers of Rico, about 20% are on strike and they are forcing others to join them.?

Jain added, ?The employees demanded a hike of Rs 10,000 per annum in their salary for three consecutive years, which is not feasible. Moreover, the union is not even registered with the Haryana government.?

Pushpinder Singh, secretary of RICO employees union, said, ?When we came back to office on September 21 after filing for registration of our union in the labour department in Chandigarh, the company officials forcefully locked us out and suspended 16 workers. On Sunday, the police lathi-charged at the agitating workers which left many injured and one dead. We are demanding that the union be recognised and due compensation given to the injured.?

Assocham has condemned the incident and urged the Haryana government to see that the agitation does not escalate. Secretary general D.S. Rawat said, ?Such stray and isolated incidents will not adversely impact the investment climate of progressive states like Haryana. But such an industrial unrest can prove counter-productive in the absence of precautionary measures.?