As the Executive Yuan’s Labor Insurance Fund reform proposal is listed on the legislative agenda this week, the government should try to close the gap between the maximum insurance salary and the minimum monthly pensions of civil servants and private-sector workers, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers said yesterday.
“The fundamental goal of the reform should be the elimination of occupational differences and generational differences,” lawmakers Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) told a press conference.
The lawmakers jointly submitted a three-point proposal: Raise the maximum insurance salary for private-sector workers, which is now NT$43,900; exclude private-sector retirees who receive a monthly pension of less than NT$32,160, which is the minimum monthly payment for retired civil servants, from the current reform package; and establishe a uniform starting year of the reform plan for both public-sector and private-sector workers.
In terms of calculations of retirement pensions, the gap between the two groups has been astonishing, which was exactly why the pension reform has drawn controversy, Wu said.
Private-sector workers’ maximum insurance salary pales in comparison to civil servants, she said, adding that civil servants also have their basic salary doubled as the calculation base, further widening the pension gap.
Meanwhile, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has set the minimum monthly pension for civil servants at NT$32,160, citing a Council of Grand Justices interpretation that said it would be the income for retirees to “maintain the minimum standard of living,” the minimum monthly pension for private-sector workers is NT$3,000, less than one-tenth of the civil servants’, Chen said.
“We have argued that the income for retirees to maintain the minimum standard of living should be the same regardless of your occupation,” Chen said.
Therefore, retired private-sector workers receiving less than NT$32,160 per month should not be included in the current reform plan, which is about to reduce private-sectors retirees’ pension, he said.
The lawmakers called for the government to halt its plan for an immediate implementation of the Labor Insurance Fund reform, saying that it was unfair because public-sector workers would not have to face shrinking pensions until 2023.
“Again, fairness is the keyword here. A reform plan without fairness and justice would neither be welcomed nor successful,” Chen said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS