YEREVAN. – The “I am against” civic initiative, which opposes the new pension law in Armenia, does not rule out the possibility of accepting PM Tigran Sargsyan’s invitation to a dialogue.

Initiative member Hakob Arshakyan told the above-said to Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“If Tigran Sargsyan is inviting to a dialogue, we will discuss the invitation and, in all likelihood, we will accept it.
“But we will not go to negotiate, but rather to demand the removal of the mandatory component [of the new pension plan],” Arshakyan stated.

The “I am against” member, however, did not wish to comment on Armenian News-NEWS.am’s query as to the format of the civic initiative’s rally-march on Saturday, and who will deliver remarks at the event.      

“We may publicize a list of speakers. But that the four non-governmental forces—i.e., the Armenian National Congress, and the Prosperous Armenia, ARF Dashnaktsutyun, and Heritage Parties—have laid conditions before us does not correspond to reality.

“We are organizing the meeting, and we decide who will speak [at the event],” Hakob Arshakyan noted. 

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.