TOKYO (Bloomberg) -- Honda Motor Co., the automaker at the center of a global auto-safety crisis, is seeking to hire a senior quality engineer who would lead audits of suppliers’ quality assurance.
Honda listed the job opening Nov. 7 on its U.S. unit’s hiring website. The same day, U.S. senators called for the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Takata Corp., the carmaker’s biggest supplier of airbags. The devices have been linked to five deaths in Honda models and recalls of more than 13 million of its vehicles worldwide since 2008.
The auditor position is one of a series of quality- and safety-related job openings Honda has listed as President Takanobu Ito navigates the airbag crisis and separate recalls involving crucial new models. Ito stood on a tangerine crate last month at a company event in Japan and exhorted employees to go “back to basics,” after taking a 20 percent pay cut for three months to show contrition for the carmaker’s issues.
“Honda is clearly taking its problems seriously, and it has to,” Ed Kim, an industry analyst for researcher AutoPacific Inc. in Tustin, Calif., said by phone. “There have been some high-profile missteps here, and bringing on more senior quality staff is to be expected.”
Honda declined to say whether it was creating new job positions or replacing executives in existing roles.
“The job openings are just regular employment and not related to our recent recalls and quality issues,” Yuka Abe, a Honda spokeswoman, said by phone. “We are always looking for specialists.”
Recalls expand
Honda and Nissan Motor Co. today followed Toyota Motor Corp. in widening their global air-bag recalls after a rupture incident in a junked car at a Japan scrapyard.
Honda will recall about 400,000 more vehicles including the Fit compact, while Nissan will replace airbags in about 152,000 cars including the Presage multi-purpose vehicle, according to the companies. Both of the expansions exclude vehicles added to U.S. safety campaigns.
All told, the auto industry has recalled nearly 20 million vehicles globally because of Takata airbags since 2008, according to Reuters estimates.
Honda has listed at least nine other job openings since mid-October for engineers whose responsibilities range from testing and validating parts, dealing with mass-production design issues and auditing to analyzing problems at suppliers.
The automaker is planning to widen Takata airbag recalls globally, following its announcement last week that it would expand a U.S. safety campaign that had been limited to high-humidity areas. The move signaled a rift in Honda’s relationship with Takata, which has resisted demands by regulators to take similar action.
Autoliv, Daicel
Honda turned to Stockholm-based Autoliv Inc. last week to supply replacement airbag parts for recalled vehicles. The carmaker said today it would also secure more of the components from Japan’s Daicel Corp. Honda is Takata’s biggest customer and owned 1.2 percent of the supplier as of March 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Even before turning to Autoliv and agreeing to the nationwide recall, Ito, 61, told reporters that Takata needed to do more to find the root cause of its airbag problems and increase production capacity for replacement parts. Honda and Takata have investigated why the airbags rupture during deployment and spew metal shards at passengers since 2007.
In addition to seeking out engineers, Honda this month listed a job opening for a mediation specialist who would “review and assess pre-litigation dispute cases for resolution.”
U.S. lawsuits
At least nine cases have been filed this year in U.S. courts claiming deaths or personal injuries caused by exploding Takata airbags. Two of the claims involved deaths in Honda cars -- one involving a California man who died in 2013 and the other of a Florida woman who died in October.
U.S. lawmakers including U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., criticized Honda and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV executives last month for entering into confidential settlements with families of airbag accident victims. Blumenthal said the deals sealed off relevant details from the public.
Honda shared information related to the airbag incidents that spurred the lawsuits with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Rick Schostek, executive vice president of Honda North America, said at a Nov. 20 Senate hearing.
In the two days leading up to the hearing, Honda listed customer relations supervisor and analyst positions on its website. The analyst’s job description included managing “complex case handling” such as accidents, injuries and fires.
