Participants protesting against the compulsory funded pension system have clashed with police, "ArmInfo" said on Feb. 6
The police blocked the road to activists of the "I am against" movement who were trying to reach the building of the Committee on state incomes, resulting in a scuffle.
Several thousands of people participated in the protest. The participants of the protest had approached the building of the Committee on state incomes demanding employers not be forced to cut employees` salaries.
A mandatory contribution to the funded pension system was introduced in Armenia on January 1, 2014. The new law requires citizens born after 1974 to pay 5 percent of their salaries to accumulative special accounts. Their contributions will be matched by the state. Citizens can receive the collected funds upon reaching retirement age, but before that, that money will be kept and managed in appropriate companies.
Discontent has been caused not only by the compulsory component of the funded system, but also by the failure to implement the Constitutional Court's decision dated Jan. 24, on cessation of some of the provisions of the law "On funded pensions".
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance proposed fulfilling obligations and also to continue the selection of a pension foundation and a manager of that foundation.
The participants of the protest organized by the civil initiative of "I am against" called this approach "highway robbery".
Edited by C.N.