Can Military and Civil Servant Pay Raises Solve the Crisis of Overwork? She Exposes How 'This Group of Civil Servants' Are Being Worked to Death: Even After Reaching Retirement, They're Coldly Abandoned

The military and civil servant pension reform (Nian Gai) has sparked ongoing controversy for years. A major turning point came in late 2025 when the legislature passed the 'pension cut suspension' bill. Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan recently approved the 'Military and Civil Servant Compensation Enhancement Plan,' implementing a uniform 4% salary increase, expected to benefit approximately 720,000 people.

In recent years, discussions on civil servant retirement benefits and compensation have intensified. On the 7th, former legislator and former Central Police University professor You Yu-Lan used her Facebook page to highlight the chronic overwork conditions faced by frontline law enforcement personnel such as police officers, criticizing the current pension and protection systems as deeply unfair to these 'high-pressure, overworked heroes of public safety.'

What is the latest standard for pension replacement rates? The difference from suspended pension cuts will be back-paid by August.

After the pension reform was implemented, the replacement rate for public servants' income dropped from a maximum of 75% to 60%, decreasing by 1.5% annually. However, in December 2025, the Legislative Yuan passed the 'pension cut suspension' bill, halting the planned annual reductions that began in 2024 (effective January 1, 2024). Instead, the retirement income replacement rate will revert to the 2023 standard.

The Ministry of Examination recently stated that this revision will affect approximately 180,000 retired civil servants. It also announced that the pension arrears from December 28, 2025, to July 31, 2026, will be fully paid out by August 1 of this year.

How severe is the overwork crisis among frontline personnel? Tragedies continue to occur across various counties and cities.

Regarding overwork among police, immigration officers, and other frontline law enforcement staff, You Yu-Lan pointed out that a 46-year-old police officer in Zhonghe, New Taipei City, died after working continuously for 17 hours handling drug-driving incidents and emergency calls, falling asleep and never waking up. A detective squad leader from Kaohsiung City Police Bureau was found to have a brain tumor during a health checkup but passed away before treatment could save him, dying before the age of 40.

In the immigration service, the Kinmen task force operates with only five staff members on rotating shifts, working year-round without rest. A 50-year-old team leader suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, surviving but left paralyzed, facing a long and difficult recovery.

Is it difficult to recognize deaths as 'line-of-duty'? Is the one-size-fits-all pension system unfair?

You Yu-Lan pointed out that whether the aforementioned police officers' deaths qualify as 'line-of-duty' remains pending confirmation from the Ministry of Examination. Moreover, the Kinmen immigration task force leader was excluded from the 'Safety Fund for Police, Fire, Coast Guard, Immigration, Air Rescue Personnel, and Civilian Support Forces.' His cerebral hemorrhage was classified as a 'sudden illness,' not as resulting from duty performance.

She criticized that the current pension and protection systems still apply standards designed for 'administrative office workers' to high-pressure, overworked, and dangerous 'heroes of public safety.' While expecting these personnel to 'share hardships' during normal times, the state draws a clear line when accidents occur—this is a second injury to those who have served and reveals the nation's deepest betrayal.

You Yu-Lan contrasted this with the United States, which, after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, enacted and repeatedly extended the '9/11 Victim Compensation Fund' (VCF). Its core principles are 'presumed causality' and 'lifetime responsibility of the state.' Families are not required to painfully prove causation; anyone who served a certain number of hours in designated disaster zones and later develops listed diseases or psychological trauma receives lifelong medical care and financial compensation from the state.

In contrast, Taiwan's system remains rigidly trapped in narrow 'on-site causality' and fiscal containment thinking, allowing the reality of 'blood-sweat exploitation leading to death' to persist unchecked.

In conclusion, You Yu-Lan lamented that Taiwan not only exhausts the health of law enforcement personnel during their service, subjects them to endless hurdles when they collapse, but even cruelly severs their retirement lives. She noted that the civil servant pension reform, under the banner of 'fiscal discipline,' targets long-serving police and firefighters who have sacrificed their health for social stability. When they finally reach retirement, the state turns on them, labeling them 'parasites' and unreasonably cutting the retirement benefits promised at recruitment.

'In normal times, rigid performance metrics drive people to despair; after death, harsh laws strangle families; after retirement, policy axes carve up dignity. This is not reform—it is the most typical case of seduction followed by abandonment!'

More exclusive reports from Feng Media: · Will military and civil servant pensions be adjusted for inflation? Li Lai-Hsi highlights the gap with current staff salaries, warning of an 'urgent concern': utterly inhumane · What's next for military and civil servant pay raises—'overtime compensation'? Civic groups point out rewards overly favor managers: starting salaries below urban living thresholds · Could military and civil servant pensions fall short by tens of thousands? Someone identifies 'problem points' in pension re-examination notices, lamenting: filing for retirement fund review, no one expects to win · Before military and civil servant pay raises, 'allowances increased by 30%' takes effect today! Someone calculates: those with 'this tenure' may lose out—uniform application is unfair · Will legal challenges claim the military and civil servant pension back-payments are unconstitutional? She points out inconsistencies in the Ministry of Examination's 'August deposit' statement: the Executive Yuan is openly reneging