YEREVAN. – Several dozens of employees of the South Caucasus Railway (SCR) Closed Joint-Stock Company have assembled nearby the Company administrative building in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan, on Monday.

They 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 reform in Armenia, also have joined the protest by the SCR employees. 

At present, the demonstrators are demanding to meet with the Company management, the Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter informs. 

If their demands are not met, the SCR employees threaten to resort to extreme measures, including a general strike.

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.