Hostage situation ends after five days

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang

The hostage situation at the closed PT Hyungsung Indonesia factory has ended after five days, with workers agreeing to allow their South Korean boss and his family to leave after being promised severance pay in accordance with manpower regulations.

More than 500 workers of the Korean-owned company, which produced Targus computer bags, took Joe Yong Seun and his family hostage after he announced on Monday that the factory was closed and workers would receive severance pay of one month's salary.

According to Sunardi, a security guard at the factory, Seun, his wife and their two children left the factory on Friday morning for Jakarta.

On Thursday evening, Seun pledged in the presence of local police and military police officers that he would give the workers severance pay in accordance with Ministry of Manpower Decree No. 150/2000. He promised to pay them the money before returning to South Korea.

According to the manpower decree, the amount of severance pay workers receive depends on how long they have worked for the company. For example, an employee who has worked for a company for more than one year but less than two years is entitled to severance pay of twice their monthly salary.

Suheni, a former employee of the company, said negotiations between Seun and the company's labor union, which were mediated by local administration officials and police and Army officers, lasted until 7 p.m last night.

She said that after Seun promised to abide by the manpower decree on severance pay the workers celebrated their victory by singing karaoke and dancing until dawn.

Seun announced on Monday that the company was shut down. According to the workers, mostly women, the closure came without any prior notice or explanation.

The workers, most of whom had been with the company since it opened in July 2000, received on average the monthly regional minimum wage of Rp 590,000 (about US$65).

An official at the local manpower office, Adang Turwana, said that he recommended the workers allow Seun and his family to leave the factory.

Adang said that to prevent Seun from leaving the country without paying the workers their severance pay, the agency suggested that the labor union hold his passport as a guarantee. Seun reportedly agreed to this.

"Besides that, I myself have a moral responsibility should the Korean flee and leave his workers in uncertainty," he told The Jakarta Post.