On 13 February Director General of ENA Yevgeniy Bibin and the head of the trade union organization, Artem Muradyan, initiated the meeting with the initiative group of the company which is against the law "On obligatory accumulative pension system".
Bibin said that according to the 8th clause of the above mentioned law, Electrical Network of Armenia held back certain sums for private pensions from salary of workers, but did not transfer them, and the funds are at the account of the company. He also added that all their actions are absolutely in line with the law.
The leaders of the company answered all the questions the employees were interested in, and said that they are ready to further discuss the created situation in any format. "We hope that the Constitutional Court will adopt the final decision on the matter in the near future", - Bibin concluded.
To recall, on 13 February dozens of employees of ENA joined continuing protests against a controversial reform of the national pension system with a rally held in Yerevan. The mostly young workers demanded that their Russian-owned company, ENA, reverse additional social security payments deducted from their salary. Like other protesters, they argued that the reform was suspended by the Constitutional Court late last month.
The Armenian authorities insist that the deductions are legal despite the Constitutional Court order. They also say that the unpopular reform is indispensable if Armenians aged 40 and younger are to receive decent pensions after retirement.