The RA Constitutional Court (CC) hardly ever attracts the attention of the society. Perhaps the reason is that the decisions of the Court are very predictable. Just like what happened in 1996 and 2003 elections. However, after the verdict reached on October 4, it became clear that the Constitutional Court has converted from the formal institution into a body with a significant influence on civil life. About a month ago the CC made a decision by examining the appeal on the “Social Security Cards”. Since July 2004, those citizens of Armenia, who received a social security card have not been receiving pensions. The State Social Security Foundation, based on the current legislation, refused to pay pensions to those citizens. The law requires that the Foundation demand the social security card before making any payment. According to the CC decision, the mentioned requirement of the legislation was considered anti-constitutional and invalid. According to the verdict the state had to start paying the citizens their pensions starting from July, 2004. For the first time, the CC made a favorable decision for the people, which clearly regulated this issue. Instead there are many mistakes and omissions left in the economic and labor codes. On one hand the CC announced that the social security card is not necessary when paying taxes, receiving payment, etc. On the other hand, according to the current legislation the social security card stays as a valid document. The CC doesn’t have a decision on changing the individual registration system. At present, we have the new order of opening individual accounts and filling out individual reports. This order was ratified by the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs and the President of the Social Security State Foundation. The current legislation warns all the employers to demand their employees to present their social security cards before being hired. This means that the social security card still exists among other requirements. The legislative and sub-legislative documents even forbid the employers to pay salaries to their employees without the submission of the social security card. The case of disobedience is subject to a 50 thousand AMD penalty. Thus, the ones, who don’t have a social security card shouldn’t be very happy because they still are not allowed to be hired without showing their social security cards. The CC did what all the other courts would do; it solved this issue in the framework of the appeal. One is only allowed to receive pension by showing a social security card. And that pretty much depends on how much the local pension distributor cares about the CC decision. The mentioned verdict of the CC doesn’t relate to the other legislative or sub-legislative acts. Before applying to the CC M. Kocharyan and H. Davtyan have sent their appeals to all the other three court instances of Armenia, but have been rejected. Now they solved their issues individually, as well as the pensioners’ issues. This issue remains unsolved in all the other sectors. It created an unprecedented situation in the legislative system of Armenia. It turns out that according to the CC, mandatory provision of social security cards is considered unconstitutional. However, if we look at it from the legislative aspect, employees cannot be hired without showing their social security cards. Now it becomes clear that even if people apply to the CC complaining that they were not hired because of the social security card, the CC will reject their appeals. So now no one knows which state body will initiate the complete amendment of the mentioned legislation, to make it relevant to the Constitution requirements. It’s not known how much time it will require. Maybe our authorities wanted to make it better for the people but the outcome was as usual.
