The government said Thursday that 143 employers in the city have joined its non-mandatory central provident fund system.
Ieong Un Lai, who heads the Central Provident Fund System Department of the Social Security Fund (FSS), revealed the figure while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a session which briefed casino workers about the city’s non-mandatory central provident fund system.
The session organised by the Macau Gaming Employees Home union took place at the Vocational Skills Training Centre run by the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (commonly known as Gung Luen) near the Barrier Gate border checkpoint.
The city’s non-mandatory central provident fund was implemented on January 1 last year. The legislature passed the government-initiated bill on the non-mandatory central provident fund in May 2017.
The law on the non-mandatory central provident fund states that employers and employees can opt to pay into the central provident fund, each paying a minimum of five percent of the employee’s basic salary per month into a provident fund account in the name of the employee.
The government has said that it will consider setting up a mandatory central provident fund system after the three-year implementation of the non-mandatory system.
Speaking to reporters, Ieong said that 143 employers have joined the government’s non-mandatory central provident fund system since its implementation on January 1 last year, 70 percent of which are social service organisations. The other employers who have joined the system include public utilities, gaming operators, hotels, education institutions, financial institutions, and health care institutions.
Employers who have already set up private pension plans can opt to switch to the government’s non-mandatory central provident fund system.
Ieong said that among the 143 employers, 23 percent did not have a private pension plan for their employees before joining the non-mandatory central provident fund system.
The government has opened an account for every local resident aged at least 18 in the non-mandatory central provident fund system.
According to the law, residents can also choose to make additional contributions to their provident fund account individually – regardless of whether they are employed or if their employers are contributing to the central provident fund or not. If a resident chooses to do so, he or she needs to pay at least 500 patacas per month into the account.
According to the law, there is a cap that a resident is allowed to contribute to their account. The cap is set at 50 percent of the city’s statutory minimum wage for cleaners and doormen employed by the property management sector – currently the minimum wage amount is 6,240 patacas per month. It means that a resident can pay a maximum of 3,100 patacas per month into their account (the amount must be divisible by 100).
Ieong said yesterday that some 40,000 residents have also joined the non-mandatory central provident fund system individually.(Macaunews)
