Epress.am News from Armenia
Yerevan Metro employees today protested against the government's new compulsory pension plan by gathering outside the company's head office at 10 am and submitting a letter to management, asking for the return of the 5% of their January salaries that were withheld.
The controversial law, which entered into force on Jan. 1, 2014, stipulates that about 5–10% of the monthly wages of workers born after 1974 will be deducted for pension contributions submitted to private companies selected by the government. The new law applies to about half of the metro's 1,200 workers.
Speaking to Epress.am, metro employee Armen Sargsyan said they received their salaries on Monday and saw that 5% was withheld. According to him, they weren't warned about the deductions beforehand and employees didn't select which of the two private funds would manage their pension contributions. The 5% was withheld from their gross (not net) salaries, he added.
Their protest shouldn't be tied to the South Caucasus Railway employees' protest, Sargsyan said. "We are not following anyone's example. It's simply that we just received our salaries and discovered that we were paid less. We didn't suspect that this would happen, as the Constitutional Court had suspended the aspects of the law relating to us," he said.
The protest was joined by members of the Dem Em (I Am Against) pressure group leading the campaign against the pension reform, who earlier joined South Caucasus Railway employees protesting outside their company's head office.