YEREVAN. – The Electrical Network of Armenia Company employees on Thursday gathered in front of the Company administrative building in capital city Yerevan.

The company workers are demanding the return of the mandatory pension fund payments that were compulsorily deduced from their salaries for January.

Members from the “I am against” civil movement, which is against the new pension law in Armenia, also joined the protesting employees, the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter informs.

Those who have gathered are calling upon the company management to explain the deductions from their salaries.

Company Media Relations Department Head Natalya Sarjanyan told the protesting workers that the deductions are kept in a special account, and should the Constitutional Court decide to suspend the aforementioned law, the deductions will be returned.

The Electrical Network of Armenia Company employees, who have gathered in front of the administrative building, are not leaving, and they have not yet decided on their future course of action, the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter informs.

The new funded pension plan, which formally came into force in Armenia on January 1, 2014, is mandatory for those born in and after 1974 and voluntary for those born before 1974. In line with this plan, 5 to 10 percent of the monthly salaries in Armenia will be deducted and mandatorily be allocated to cumulative pension funds; the latter will be reimbursed as pensions once a person turns 63 years old.

On January 24, however, the Constitutional Court decided to suspend the execution of some components in the Law on Funded Pensions pending the hearing—on March 28—of the petition submitted by the four non-ruling-coalition parliamentary forces—the Armenian National Congress, Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and Heritage—, and into the constitutionality of the several articles of the law.

Notwithstanding this, some employers already are deducting the mandatory pension payment from the salaries of their employees.