PreferredYEREVAN. – Several dozens of young researchers at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Armenia, who are protesting the new pension plan in the country, assembled in front of the NAS building on Monday afternoon (photo).
They wrote a letter addressed to NAS President Radik Martirosyan, in which they express their disagreement with the decision to deduct the mandatory pension payments from their salaries, demand from Martirosyan to appeal this matter at the relevant bodies, and also warn that the young scholars are ready to defend their rights and freedoms.
The young scholars handed the letter to the NAS Letters’ Section.
Radik Martirosyan, on the other hand, received solely the journalists, and said that nothing is dependent on them, and if there is a law, everyone shall obey it.
After handing the letter, the young scholars walked toward the Constitutional Court building, where they will hand a similar letter that expresses their concerns over this new law.
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.
