YEREVAN. – The participants in Friday’s demonstration, which is organized by the “I am against” civic initiative which opposes the new pension law in Armenia, are marching from the Finance Ministry toward capital city Yerevan’s Kentron Police Department, where several demonstrators are detained.
Following the detainment of the activists, the clashes between the police and the participants in the protest continued for a long time near the ministry building.
The activists had blocked the street, but the police officers forcibly brought them out of the street and, subsequently, they formed a human wall on both sidewalks of the street.
Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Valeri Osipyan is nearby the Finance Ministry, too. He stated that no one has the right to block the street and interfere with someone else’s right to freedom of movement.
The demonstrators were demanding that the finance minister come down and answer their questions with respect to the new pension law. The minister, however, refused to come down and, instead, he proposed that the activists form a several-member delegation which he will receive.
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.
YEREVAN. – The participants in Friday’s demonstration, which is organized by the “I am against” civic initiative which opposes the new pension law in Armenia, are marching from the Finance Ministry toward capital city Yerevan’s Kentron Police Department, where several demonstrators are detained.
Following the detainment of the activists, the clashes between the police and the participants in the protest continued for a long time near the ministry building.
The activists had blocked the street, but the police officers forcibly brought them out of the street and, subsequently, they formed a human wall on both sidewalks of the street.
Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Valeri Osipyan is nearby the Finance Ministry, too. He stated that no one has the right to block the street and interfere with someone else’s right to freedom of movement.
The demonstrators were demanding that the finance minister come down and answer their questions with respect to the new pension law. The minister, however, refused to come down and, instead, he proposed that the activists form a several-member delegation which he will receive.
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.
