The Executive Yuan yesterday approved three legislative amendments that would allow retired military and government officials, as well as workers in the education sector, to continue receiving monthly pensions after obtaining work in the private sector.
The amendments would also make all pension fund payouts to civil servants, military personnel and educators salary tax-free.
The bills were drafted in response to Constitutional Interpretations Nos. 781, 782 and 783 by the Council of Grand Justice in August 2019, which ruled that withholding pensions is unconstitutional.
Photo: CNA
The council said that clauses of the Act Governing Retirement, Severance, and Bereavement Compensation for the Teaching and Other Staff Members of Public Schools (公立學校教職員退休資遣撫卹條例), the Act of Military Service for Officers and Non-commissioned Officers of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍軍官士官服役條例) and the Act Governing the Recompense for the Discharge of Special Political Appointees (政務人員退職撫卹條例), enacted during pension reforms in 2017, are unconstitutional.
The government in June that year disqualified retired civil servants, military personnel and educators who take up work at a private institution and whose income combined with pension payments exceeds the minimum wage from receiving pensions.
Yesterday’s amendments stipulate that pensions are to be evaluated every four years, or when the consumer price index has changed by 5 percent or more, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has reviewed the amendments and approved their passage, Lo said.
The ministries of national defense and education, the Examination Yuan, as well as the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration should contact political party caucuses and legislative committees to facilitate the amendment procedures, Lo said.
However, the government would continue to pursue policies to discourage private schools from employing retired civil servants, military personnel and public educators, Deputy Minister of Education Lin Teng-chiao (林騰蛟) said.
The number of retirees from the sectors employed in an institution would be considered when granting subsidies, Lin said.
The education ministry would draft rules that its subsidies could not be used to pay retirees’ wages, he said.
Regarding the premiums for private schools’ retirement and compensation funds, employees usually paid 35 percent, while the school and the government split the remaining 65 percent, Lin said.
Schools should pay the full 65 percent of premiums, as this would discourage them from hiring retireed public servants, he said.
The number of retired military officers and civil servants employed in private schools has dropped from 1,855 in 2017 to 1,155 in August last year, he added.
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