KOROR (Palau Horizon) — House Floor Leader Sabino Anastacio is seeking changes in the mandate of the Social Security Administration concerning benefits of foreign workers who are no longer in Palau.
Anastacio filed House Bill 6-105 in light of a civil suit involving SSA and a group of Philippine nationals contesting certain provisions of the law that created the agency.
Anastacio proposes to exempt non-Palauans as well as their employers from the SSA mandatory contribution.
“The Olbiil Era Kelulau (Palau’s national legislature) has determined that non-Palauan workers rarely stay in Palau long enough to accrue eligibility for these benefits—therefore requiring them to contribute to the system in the same manner as a Palauan employee is not justifiable,” he noted.
Anastacio added that it is costly for the agency to track down eligible non-citizen members and pay out their benefits for six months.
“This is especially true since there is no reciprocity—Palauans do not pay social security taxes in the Philippines, Bangladesh or India and are not eligible to receive social security benefits from other countries in which they work and live,” he said.
Moreover, Anastacio said employers generally incur more costs in hiring foreign workers through labor fees, housing and transportation allowances.
Instead of mandatory SS contributions, Anastacio said alien workers should pay a “social impact fee.”
“This fee will equal 3 percent of the worker’s salary and shall be collected by the employer in the same manner as social security contributions. This fee shall be paid to the Social Security Administration to assist it in providing social security benefits to Palauans,” Anastacio’s bill states.
The bill, however, would allow foreign workers who become eligible before Sept. 30, 2002 to receive social security benefits.
“However, a non-citizen employee will stop accruing eligibility for benefits after Sept. 30, 2002,” Anastacio said.
