The Legislative Yuan has passed an amendment to the Labour Pension Act to include all foreigners with permanent residency in Taiwan in the country's retirement pension system. This resolves a long-standing issue of that had been raised in the position papers of the ECCT’s Better Living and Human Resources committees since 2012.

Under the system, employers are obliged to contribute funds equivalent to a minimum of 6% of monthly salary to employee pension accounts every month while employees have the option of depositing a maximum of 6% of their salaries in the accounts, with the deposits exempt from income tax.

The pension accounts are portable and will be retained even if workers switch jobs or business entities shut down or cease operations. Prior to the amendment, the pension system covered only Taiwanese nationals and foreign spouses of Taiwanese nationals, including those from mainland China, Hong Kong and Macao, as well as certain categories of foreign professionals with permanent residency in Taiwan.

The ECCT welcomes the passage of the amendment and looks forward to its rapid promulgation and implementation. This progress has been achieved thanks to years of advocacy work by the ECCT’s HR and Better Living committees and diligent work conducted by government agencies, especially the National Development Council (NDC) and the Ministry of Labour.