At today’s government session, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan announced that the government is prepared to embark on a dialogue with the civic initiative Dem.Am or I am Against It, which has been actively protesting the controversial mandatory pension reform that went into effect on January 1 of this year. Demonstrations against the new measure have been taking place across the country.
Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan noted that the government admits that shortcomings in the law, especially legislation pertaining to pension reform is unacceptable. He also admitted that a new dynamic force has been created in civil society and the government must adjust the way it functions to address their concerns. “The youth protesting against the mandatory accumulative pension plan have been writing letters to us expressing their concern. It is clear from the letters that they feel responsible for and love their country,” said Prime Minister Sargsyan.
Meanwhile, in previous speeches Sargsyan had said that there is no alternative to this pension reform, that it was a conscious decision and the positive results of this new system would quickly become apparent.
The Constitutional Court suspended two articles on the “Accumulative pension system” until March 28.
Later in the day, representatives of the Dem.am movement released a statement regarding Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan’s request for a meeting. The statement read: “Dem.am has always valued dialogue. We have demonstrated this with our demands, even before the process began in the Constitutional Court. We sent letters to numerous bodies, including to the Prime Minister, we held consultations and our request along with the four opposition factions in parliament to have a special parliamentary hearing to discuss the reform was shot down by the ruling coalition.”
The Dem.am statement goes on to say that while they welcome the Prime Minister’s proposal for dialogue, they will continue their activities until such time that the mandatory component of the pension reform is removed. “When there is a clear message that they are ready to abolish the mandatory component from the law and when there is the desire to discuss a new alternative law, only then will we be ready to engage in a dialogue,” the statement said. The civic initiative said that there must be open and transparent public discussion, with the participation of all segments of society for a new way forward.
Those citizens born after 1974 will be incorporated into the new pension plan. Those who are to be part of the new pension plan will have to accumulate their pension in a pension fund which will be managed through designated fund administrators.
Those citizens who earn a salary less than 500,000 AMD will accumulate their pension with a 5 percent deduction of their salary. The government in turn will transfer another five percent. For those citizens who earn a salary more than 500,000 AMD the government will transfer a maximum of 25,000 AMD, if there’s a shortfall to reach the 5 percent threshold, then the employee’s wage will be further deducted.
