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Article 8, Paragraph 2 of the Workers' Retirement Benefits Guarantee Act, which inherits Article 34, Paragraph 3 of the existing Labor Standards Act, stipulates that "an employer may, upon the request of a worker, settle and pay in advance the retirement allowance for the period during which the worker has continuously worked before retirement." This establishes the interim settlement system for retirement allowances based on the worker's request. Since the interim settlement of retirement allowance requires a 'request from the worker' as a condition, even if it is based on a collective bargaining agreement or employment rules, it is only possible with a specific request from the individual worker, and a separate request must be made each time an interim settlement is desired. When an interim settlement of retirement allowance is conducted, the continuous service years for calculating the retirement allowance after the settlement are recalculated starting anew from the settlement date. However, since conducting an interim settlement does not mean the employment relationship starts anew, even if the continuous service years after the settlement are less than 1 year, the total continuous service years exceed 1 year, so the worker can still receive retirement allowance prorated by period. Additionally, the newly recalculated continuous service years are limited to those for retirement allowance calculation and do not affect the continuous service years used for calculating annual paid leave, promotions, pay grades, bonuses, etc. On the other hand, the annual salary system that includes retirement allowance in monthly salary has caused many problems. In principle, an agreement that comprehensively includes retirement allowance in monthly salary is invalid. However, in practice, it has become customary to settle retirement allowance annually under the name of interim settlement and divide it into 12 months to include it in monthly salary. The Ministry of Employment and Labor states that for such agreements to be valid, ① the amount of retirement allowance included in the annual salary must be clearly specified, and the total of the retirement allowance received monthly must not be less than the amount calculated according to Article 8, Paragraph 1 of the Workers' Retirement Benefits Guarantee Act (Article 34, Paragraph 1 of the existing Labor Standards Act) based on the interim settlement date; ② there must be a separate request from the worker seeking interim settlement (outside of the employment contract or annual salary contract), and the content that the interim settlement amount will be divided and paid monthly must be clearly included; ③ the interim settlement target period is only the period of continuous prior service based on the interim settlement date, so workers with less than 1 year of service are not subject to statutory retirement allowance payment and thus not eligible for interim settlement (this guideline has been in effect since July 2006).