Ehem, my furries are all Made in Taiwan.
I mean my elderly mama, how much she would enjoy a stay in Taiwan.
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Wow, I can’t get my mom to visit no matter how hard I twist her arm.
Mine neither. But if there is an optin she can stay long term, perhaps maybe. i would like her to get medical attention here.
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My dad was just here visiting. The last time he was here was 1985! He lived here in the early 70s.
Well, at least he came (must’ve hardly recognized the place). My mom is a neat freak who hates oily food and crowded places, so it’s a hard sell.
Yeah, my brother visited a few years ago. Unfortunately, my aunties took him to touristy places and he feels the same way as your mom about crowds. I have a feeling he’s not planning another trip here anytime soon.
but any news on foreigners and pensions???
Foreigner pensions will be paid out in pearl milk tea. You can take a lump sum tank-load of pearl milk tea at one time when you reach retirement age, or you can take a daily disbursement of 2 cups pearl milk tea each day from retirement age until you die.
A bonus fried chicken breast each New Year is currently being discussed by legislators and may be added to the Act at a later date.
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Which will come sooner rather than later if you have a two cup a day habit. Very smart of them.
It’s an end of life accelerator!
But can it compete with Soylent Pearl™?
Sorry Mr. Masala, I missed the coming into effect of the aforementioned provisions of the Act for the Recruitment & Employment of Foreign Professionals because I foolishly expected the Labor Pension Act to be amended. Instead they’ve left the LPA exactly as it was, so you can’t understand the LPA by reading the LPA (because the AREFP rewrites part of it), just as you can’t understand the LSA by reading the LSA (because the LPA rewrites part of it). 
What @Alex1000 quoted earlier in this thread matches the English text of Art. 11 at Act for the Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals - Article Content - Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (Taiwan) except that the version which was passed has one more paragraph at the end:
The provisions of the preceding five paragraphs shall not apply to foreign professionals as referred to in the first paragraph who were already covered by the Labor Pension Act prior to the enforcement of this Act.
That just prevents foreign spouses from having their pensions reset.
However, there’s still room for more confusion! 
Foreign professionals who are hired to engage in professional work, and who have been approved for permanent residence by the National Immigration Agency, Ministry of the Interior, shall from the date of enforcement of this Act be included in the retirement pension system under the Labor Pension Act.
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Are they saying a foreigner who obtains PR status due to five years of “professional work” qualifies for the new system, but a foreigner who obtains PR status due to five years of marriage doesn’t? Is it just your ARC status at the time you become a PR that matters? What if you’re working but on a marriage-based ARC?
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“Professional work” in this context means “white collar” work i.e. jobs covered by Art. 46 Par. 1 Subpar. 1 to 6 of the Employment Service Act. As much as some legislators hate this concept, it is possible for a human being to have both blue and white collar jobs in a single lifetime.
So, is it only the color of your collar at the time you become a PR that matters? Or do you lose your pension if you spend a day hauling bricks, doing household chores, or caring for an elderly relative? 
Anyway, if you are a PR and unambiguously employed as a “foreign professional”, whether normal, special, or senior, provided that you don’t request not to be switched over to the new system, you should automatically be switched over.
According to the MOJ’s record of the AREFP, which for some reason seems not to have been available until June 8th, 2018 (“last updated” on that date even though there’s been no amendment since promulgation), the Act came into effect on February 8th, 2018.
1.中華民國一百零六年十一月二十二日總統華總一義字第 10600140481 號令制定公布全文 22 條；施行日期，由行政院定之中華民國一百零七年一月二十九日行政院院臺教字第 1070002554 號令發布定自一百零七年二月八日施行
If I’m reading Art. 11 Par. 5 correctly, your employer has until 6 months and 15 days after that date – so late August – to register you for the new system at the BLI.
Your seniority starts from when the date you started your current job, not from the date of the switch.
For teachers who are also PR’s:
“Authorized manning strength”! 
Here’s the original: 受聘僱擔任我國公立學校現職編制內專任合格有給之教師…
I’m not sure about that, but since I get a headache trying to keep track of the rules for the different kinds of non-buxiban teachers, I think I’ll leave it to @tando to figure this one out.
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So I got notice from my employer that I need to choose between the old or new system by Aug 7th. If I keep the old system, I need to inform them in writing by then, otherwise I’ll automatically be moved to the new system. If I decide to keep the old system, I am then locked into it, I can’t change to the new one in the future. This implies, as I suspected, that my employer has been paying into the old system for me.
So it looks like my seniority from the old plan will carry over per @Alex1000 's interpretation. I wonder about the contributions though, will they come over into the new system if I switch or am I starting from zero? I have that question into my HR now.
Also, it says that should I switch, “The effective date will be dated back to Feb 8, 2018, or the date APRC is issued, whichever is later validated”. I assume that means I can get an earlier effective date of the new plan if I can provide proof that my current APRC was issued before Feb 8th.
So many questions. I have no idea which plan is better for me and no idea how to find out. I’m sure there are a bunch of factors in play. I just wonder generally which one is better?
Here are some differences that my employer highlighted…
Continue with old:
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Pension continues, employer accrues 6% monthly with a ceiling of NT 150,000
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Supplemental plan continues (9% x monthly salary)
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In the event the employee retires and leaves the company and meets the retirement conditions under the LSA, employees will be paid the greater of the LSA OR Supplemental
Move to new:
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Employer accrues 6% monthly with a ceiling of NT 150,000
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Employees can contribute an addtional 6%
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Dividends would be given by the Gov’t to your accumulated amount
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Supplemental pension plan to continue at 9% x monthly base- Monthly LPA contribution
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Already accrued pension allowance amount will be paid when the employee resigns
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In my understanding, the contribution under LSA will be greater than your employer Supplemental. It is written 2 units per year of service (for the first 15 years) which roughly means 16.7% x monthly salary.
How does one set up a pension fund?
I know, in theory, one’s employer should deal with this.
In reality, one’s employer is doing their best to avoid contributing to the pension funds of us expensive, pesky foreigners who are the primary reason their company makes money. I’ve sent a note to the Bureau of Labor Insurance about it, so hopefully they’ll look into it. But if not… what to do when a large, supposedly reputable company tries to rip off its long-term employees?
Fyi
Regulations of the Settlement Labor Insurance Disputes
http://law.moj.gov.tw/MOBILE/lawEng.aspx?pcode=N0050012
That one’s just for disputes with the BLI, not with the employer. 
If the BLI doesn’t use its administrative enforcement power, get ready to sue your employer. 
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Here is a link that I didn’t find posted on Forumosa so far (according to ggogle). It shows differences between LSA and LPA in one table: https://www.bli.gov.tw/en/0010366.html (edit: updated link)
But now for my questions, any comments, ideas, insights appreciated. I’m on work ARC, not APRC yet. After I married, my employer now asks me to chose LSA or LPA.
Q1
What is everyone’s understanding of the LSA “work seniority” rule? Is this looking at the last employer only, eg. how many years you worked at that last company before retiring? Or is this looking at the longest period at one employer that you ever had in your Taiwan work life?
Some background: Out of the almost 2 decades at my employer, I’ve worked only a few years in Taiwan, and only a year or so I was at the same time married to a Taiwanese AND working in Taiwan. So I expect that during most of my time at this company there were no payments into the Taiwan pension system: My pay slips so far did show “Labor” (I guess insurance) deductions, but the “Pension” section for company and employee is empty.
Since I worked at my company so long already, so I guess staying in the LSA for substantially more severance payments seems advisable (there is a chance this will happen soon 
). Until recently my contract was with a foreign entity of my company, then I agreed to terminate that foreign contract and change to a contract with the Taiwanese entity instead. In that Taiwanese contract it says that the employment period in the foreign entity of the company “is recognized as part of total service years” with the Taiwan entity.
Q2
My employer seems to intend to honor these total service years for severance payments, but what would the legal standpoint look like? Is this contract clause worth anything in the eyes of Taiwan authorities?
Q3
I don’t expect that clause would do anything for my pension in Taiwan (since it is from the state, not the company), does anyone think differently?
Link seems to not work and I am unable to find the table. Very curious about this as my HR department also told me I need to choose whether to stay with the old system or switch to the new one. I’d like to see this table comparing the two since I really have no idea about the differences/advantages/etc.
Edit: Found it. Try this link.
https://www.bli.gov.tw/en/0010366.html
Strange, the link worked for me - but it indeed forwards to the simpler link you gave. Thanks, I updated that.