The Council of Labor Affairs today passed a regulation that will allow temporary and contract personnel employed by the government to enjoy the same pension plan as permanent employees after the Laborers' Pension Law (勞工退休條例) is implemented on July 1.
During a meeting held at the Executive Yuan yesterday, it was agreed that a worker employed by central or local government bodies who does not qualify as a civil servant would have at least 6 percent of his or her salary placed into a personal retirement fund.
This decision comes as good news to some 131,000 temporary workers, as well as 26,000 contracted workers who work for administrative units under the Executive Yuan.
According to Lee Lai-hsi (李來希), director of the Department of Labor Standards at the council, since the Labor Standards Law (勞動基準法) does not apply to temporary and contracted employees, the meeting decided that the monthly deposit mechanism should apply to them instead.
"These temporary employees may choose to have the government deposit 6 percent of their monthly salary into a personal retirement account," Lee said.
Current regulations stipulate that the government deposit 3.5 percent of a contracted employee's monthly salary into a retirement account. The council is to hold discussions with the Ministry of Civil Service to determine if the 3.5 percent is to be raised to 6 percent.
According to Lee, it was not clear at this point whether the 6 percent deposit would be optional for contracted workers. The council will continue discussions with the ministry on the issue.
Implementing the 6 percent monthly deposit scheme is expected to cost the government NT$2.5 billion a year.
This year, money covering substantial cash outlays between July and December will, according to the council, be sourced from tax income from central and regional governments. Beginning next year, a budget will be set aside to safeguard the retirement deposits for temporary and contracted personnel who work for the government.
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