Hostage situation ends after five days
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.