Bureau of Labor Insurance Diligently Auditing Insurance Declarations to Curb Underreporting of Salary and Protect Benefits to Workers
The BLI reminds all workers that, to protect their insurance benefits, all workers should proactively monitor their labor insurance information, and check whether their monthly insurance salary is being reported in accordance with the workers’ total monthly salary.
To prevent underreporting of employees' insurance salary by businesses, the BLI has diligently undertaken the following audit measures:
Proactive Adjustment procedures, based on the 2016 salary income information provided by the Fiscal Information Agency. It is estimated that the Proactive Adjustment will be enforced on more than 130,000 insured employees of more than thirty thousand insured units. This will lead to an increase of more than NT$60 million in monthly premium income.
Intensive audits will be conducted focusing on the companies for whom "the average insurance salary is lower than that of the industry by a specific percentage or more", or for whom "after continuing proactive adjustment by the BLI, there still is a significant difference between the insurance salary and the salary income reported".
Collaboratively with relevant labor inspection units, the BLI will continue to implement various labor inspections. When a violation is confirmed, the BLI shall, in accordance with regulations, impose on the employer a penalty of four times the premium payable. The employer, in the meantime, is responsible for compensating losses suffered by the worker caused by accidents.
If underreporting of the insurance salary is suspected, the worker may reckon the monthly insurance salary under the labor insurance program based on the monthly contribution for labor pension made by the employer. In other words, the monthly contribution may be calculated by dividing the contribution amount by the contribution rate (minimum 6%, according to prevailing regulations). The BLI, in the meantime, will cross-check the monthly insurance salary (under the labor insurance program) against the monthly contribution wage (under the labor pension system). When the insurance salary is lower than NT$45,800 (the highest grade of insurance salary under the labor insurance system), the contribution wage and insurance salary should in principle be consistent. Workers, therefore, may calculate their respective insurance salary using this method. An example: Assuming that the contribution amount for the labor pension system is NT$1,818 and the contribution rate is 6%, one can reckon the monthly contribution wage (for the labor pension system) and monthly insurance salary (for labor insurance) declared by the employer by dividing the contribution amount (NT$1,818) by 0.06. The monthly contribution wage and insurance salary, therefore, are NT$30,300.
Insured workers are recommended to check their labor insurance information from time to time through various channels, such as via citizen digital certificates, postal debit cards, labor protection cards, the mobile service app provided by the BLI, and by telephone or counter visits. To avoid any adverse impact on workers' rights and interests, they should discuss relevant issues with their employers on a timely basis.