Taipei: Taiwan's Ministry of Labor (MOL) has ruled that employers must begin setting aside pension funds for blue-collar foreign workers who have worked for the same employer for more than 10 years. The recently-introduced directive, due to take effect on April 1 next year, requires employers to contribute between 2 and 15 percent of workers' wages each month to a retirement fund, the MOL said.

According to Focus Taiwan, Huang Wei-chen, director of the ministry's Department of Employment Welfare and Retirement, stated that blue-collar foreign workers are covered under the old labor pension system but employers were previously exempt from making pension contributions to them. This exemption was based on earlier interpretations that viewed migrant workers-a general term used in Taiwan to refer to blue-collar laborers predominantly from the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam-as "supplementary labor," since they were only allowed to stay in Taiwan for up to six years.

Huang noted that the ministry issued the new directive following the gradual relaxation of migrant labor policies and the introduction of the Long-term Retention Program for Migrant Workers, which provides foreign workers with more time to qualify for pensions. The program reflects Taiwan's evolving approach to integrating migrant workers into its labor system.

According to Huang, more than 7,000 companies in Taiwan employ blue-collar foreign workers, though not all have opened labor retirement reserve accounts. This new directive aims to ensure that long-term migrant workers receive the retirement benefits they are entitled to, aligning with Taiwan's commitment to improving labor welfare standards.