Armenia’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mane Tandilyan stepped down on June 12 after a disagreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashninian over reforms to the country’s pensions system. 

Under the current pension reform plans, from July 1 this year private-sector employees born after 1973 will be required to contribute to individual funded pension accounts. The system was rolled out for public-sector employees in 2014, but the introduction for the private sector was postponed from July 2017.

Tandilyan wanted Yerevan to adopt legislation postponing the introduction of a mandatory funded pension system until July 1, 2019. However, Pashninian told parliament in early June, when setting out his governing programme, that the introduction of the mandatory system had passed the point of no return. 

The labour and social affairs minister said in a Facebook post that she had decided to stand down following a parliamentary session dedicated to the issue on June 11. 

“Appointed as minister of labour and social affairs, I expressed my stance to postpone the full implementation of the mandatory component for one year and to change the system through public discussions… After many discussions, it became clear that my proposal did not have government support. Instead, another variant was proposed, which was presented and approved at the government session,” Tandilyan wrote. 

She claimed there were “social, legal, political and system issues” concerning the introduction of the mandatory system, and that the “mandatory component did not have public support”. 

Tandilyan also resigned from the Enlightened Armenia party, which is part of the Yelk Alliance led by Pashninian.