VANADZOR. – The Vanadzor residents, who are against the new pension law in Armenia, and the capital city Yerevan members of the “I am against” civil movement against this law, and who have arrived in Vanadzor, on Saturday commenced their assembly and march in the city (PHOTOS) 

“This is a pan-Armenian movement. There is no guarantee that the state will return the youth’s money years later. We are fighting for the future of us all,” Artak Baghdasaryan, a participant in the march, told Armenian News-NEWS.am.  

Holding banners and chanting slogans, the participants in the protest march are walking along Vanadzor streets. 

They are informing the people that they have the right not to choose a cumulative pension fund and not to pay the mandatory 5 percent from their salaries until March 28, when the Constitutional Court will make a decision concerning the law on pension reforms.  

In addition, the demonstrators are distributing informational pamphlets while the police are watching over the march.   

Numerous elderly people, to whom this law does not apply, likewise are taking part in this protest march.   

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 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 the some components of the Law on Funded Pensions pending the hearing of the petition submitted by the four non-ruling-coalition parliamentary forces—specifically, 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 deducing the mandatory pension payment from the salaries of their employees.    

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am