The results of a survey released yesterday show that nearly 47 percent of Taiwanese enterprises have changed their salary structure in order to cope with the new pension system implemented last July.
The survey was conducted by 1111 Manpower Bank (1111
It found that 66.45 percent of the enterprises that the respondent employees worked for were operating completely in line with the new pension system, while 18.27 percent have partially adopted the system and 10.63 percent have made no changes.
As to changes made in terms of salary structure, 41.84 percent of the respondents said their paychecks had been cut, while 29.08 percent said their insurance coverage had been changed and 25.53 percent said their companies have submitted false salary figures to labor affairs authorities in order to cut their spending.
Under the new pension system, employers must deposit 6 percent of an employee's salary into their pension account each month, which the employees take with them whenever they change jobs.
According to Bureau of Labor Insurance statistics, 74.06 percent of employees around the country adopted the new pension system, while 25.94 percent chose to stay in the old one, under which an employee gets his or her pension after working for 25 consecutive years for the same enterprise or when they reach the age of 55 years and have worked for the same company for 15 consecutive years.
Under the old system, employees receive their pension in one lump sum, while under the new one, retired workers are eligible to receive a monthly pension for the rest of their life.
Wu Ruey-ying (吳睿穎), spokesman for 1111 Manpower Bank, said employers could violate the Labor Standard Law (勞基法) if they try to offset the increased labor costs resulting from the new pension system by reducing employees' salaries or signing new labor contracts with their employees.
RSS