IMHO, LSA is quite clear about that. See Art. 53. Seems it is difficult to satisfy the requirements for retirements for 2 different employers simultaneously.
To my understanding, you (employee) should not contribute to your pension reserve fund. This your employer obligation (Art. 56 of LSA).
see Art.17 of LSA
To be clear, if you stay with LSA that means you reject LPA, right? So what kind of pension are you talking?
BTW, LSA
I talked with my HR and decided to switch to the new plan. Main points were that the company must contribute a minimum of 6% and you yourself can contribute up to an additional 6%. Also, if switching jobs for any reason, you do not lose those contributions.
Thanks a lot for that link! Also thanks a lot for taking the time to look into this and your comments. I’m afraid I probably missed the main point of the LSA pensions: These seem to be pensions that a worker can claim from his (ex-) employer - not from one central pension authority (like with LPA). With that now in mind, let’s refer to the LSA text again…
This is Article 53:
A worker may apply for voluntary retirement under any of the following conditions:
- Where the worker attains the age of fifty-five and has worked for fifteen years.
- Where the worker has worked for more than twenty-five years.
- Where the worker attains the age of sixty and has worked for ten years.
Ok, so let’s say one reaches 60, and in the past had worked for 3 employers, 11 years at each. I’m sure that’s realistic, no? I would understand that one could then claim 3 pensions, one from each of these employers. Correct?
Also my understanding is then, that under LSA, if you don’t stay for 10 years with any given employer, you don’t get anything in the end. True?
Of course, with LSA it would only be the employer’s contribution. I guess the pay slips are simple forms that can be used for LSA or PLA, that’s why they mention both. I wanted to simply point out that there was no amount mentioned on the pay slips for pension funds from either party.
Sorry, I don’t mean legal standpoint for what does the company owe the worker (as in article 17). I was wondering about the legal standpoint regarding for such a clause in a contract" is recognized as part of total service years", with regard to severance payments.
Yes it’s clear, if I stayed with LSA that would mean rejecting LPA. My comment above “state, not company” was based on my misunderstanding that both LSA and LPA are from the state… while actually LSA seems to be between the company and the employee. Sorry for the confusion. I guess for this I will wait for answer from my company then.
No. Because you can reach 60 working at only one company. The other 2 you have left already and possibly got severance from them, right?
Yes! That is the point. So, basically, you cannot be sure up to the end. Very typical situation, the company got bankrupt. So, employees got nothing.
I think, it must be related with LPA but not necessarily with LSA because in the case of LSA the company reserves its own fund.
To my opinion, LSA is obviously better than LPA but much more risky. Even severance pay with LSA is larger than the pension with LPA!!!
Thanks a lot again for your comments.
I see, so my original question “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?” would get a yes as answer.
If you left voluntarily, I would expect no severance. But the LSA pension money was put aside by the 2 companies for 9 years each… so I guess they just pocket it back?
Yep, it’s my impression as well that the payments you might get for pension or severance are higher with the LSA. But only with the LPA one can accumulate work seniority in a Taiwan work life where you don’t necessarily want to stay with one employer for decades.
PS: If the PLA ever is in Taiwan, then I guess the pensions are kaput anyway 
Is there some basic pension if you never contributed ? Or is it in that case 0?
Do assets matter when the amount of pension is calculated ?
no.
there is a pension for roc citizens to whom other pensions are not applicable.
I think so, including some minimal seniority requirements from Art.53
Probably they should have some other regulation about those money. This quote from Article 56
“Employers shall appropriate labor pension reserve funds ranging between 2% and 15% of the total monthly wages of their employees and deposit such amount in a designated account. The funds in said account may not be used as an assignment, seizure, offset or security object. The central competent authority shall establish regulations on the proportion, procedure and management of the funds to be appropriated and present them to the Executive Yuan for approval. …”.
Agreed. 
New turn of events. Apparently I may not qualify as a “foreign professional” for the new pension plan. I’m a white collar worker (international sales for a machinery company) and my HR is now telling me I should just marry a Taiwanese girl. -_-
We really need a definition of “foreign professional”. Has anybody found the guidelines listed for this?
Foreigners who can qualify for the pension are spouses of ROC citizens or APRC holders. Non-spouse people on ARC or TARC cannot.
To be clear, it’s not just APRC holders. I’ve had my APRC for 3 years. Only “foreign professional with an APRC” qualify. It’s been confirmed that 業務 does not count as a 專業人才. I’m stuck with the old plan.
this should be Article 46 of Employment Service Act.
And you may get more info from here.
https://ezworktaiwan.wda.gov.tw/en/Content_List.aspx?n=3840722B002ADEAB
More BS…
Thanks, Tando. But it seems I’m SOL. The ladies in HR have made multiple calls to the number listed here, to no avail.
I would suggest you to show these ref. pages to your HR.
https://www.bli.gov.tw/0012933.html
https://www.bli.gov.tw/0023013.html
And also some application forms
https://www.bli.gov.tw/0023079.html
Edit: This quote from the 2nd link above:
“四、依外專法第4條規定，專業工作指下列工作：
(一)依就業服務法第46條第1項第1款至第6款之工作。
(二)具專門知識或技術，且經中央目的事業主管機關會商教育部指定依補習及進修教育法立案之短期補習班教師。”
I think if the company can get a work permit for your job, you are a foreign professional. If not, you are not.
Your LSA seniority for both severance and pension purposes is your time spent working for your (current) employer, using the definition of employer found in the LSA, which means they can’t reset your seniority to zero by transferring you to another department. It gets tricky when they try to evade liability by transferring you to a legally distinct entity, though the Supreme Court has found the usual trick of dissolving and re-establishing the company to be invalid if it doesn’t change the actual work situation i.e. it changes the employer in theory but not in practice.
The LSA establishes minimum conditions only, so a contract clause more favorable to the worker than what the LSA requires is acceptable. Since they’ve clearly stated in the contract that your seniority includes time spent working at the company’s non-Taiwan office, you should have nothing to worry about there.
So a few months ago I came across this: (title): As of February 8, 2018, the Labor Pension Act applies to foreign professionals in Taiwan who have permanent residence
English: https://www.bli.gov.tw/en/0013228.html
Chinese: https://www.bli.gov.tw/0023302.html
Now I brought this up to my employer and they said that they do not have to include me and my coworkers in the pension scheme because we are not the right type of “foreign professionals” and that “foreign professionals” only constitutes a few types of careers.
However, I have also been told by a friend that this act applies to all foreigners who have permanent residence and that all APRC holders are all eligible for the national pension. Have I been duped by my HR department or is the pension only available to “special” foreigners? One of my goals for after CNY is to figure this out, first stop here and next stop the Bureau of Labor. Thanks.
Didn’t have a problem asking my employer to do this. I’m working for them as a full-time regular employee. I think they have to legally comply to this. The only thing they asked from me is a formal list of my work permits, which I got from the employment bureau.
I guess I’m technically working part time at my current position, but given the fluctuating nature of the amount of work at this place, there are times when I am full time. Does this make any difference?