On January 1, 2021, the Agreement on Pension Provision of Workers of the Eurasian Economic Union Member States dated December 20, 2019 entered into force (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement). Recall that the main purpose of the Agreement is to form the pension rights of workers of the EAEU member states on the same conditions and in the same manner as citizens of the state of employment. This means that each EAEU member state must guarantee to citizens of other EAEU member states the amount of rights to pension benefits equal to the amount of rights granted to its citizens on similar conditions.
Thus, in accordance with Article 12 of the Agreement, containing transitional provisions, it is provided that the appointment and payment of pensions are carried out in the following order:
for the length of service acquired after the entry into force of the Agreement, the pension is assigned and paid by the EAEU member state in whose territory the corresponding length of service was acquired;
for the work experience acquired before the entry into force of the Agreement, the pension is assigned and paid in accordance with the legislation of the EAEU member states and the Agreement on guarantees of the rights of citizens of the member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States in the field of pension provision of March 13, 1992, and for the Republic of Belarus and Russian Federation - Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus on cooperation in the field of social security dated January 24, 2006.
For example, now in Kazakhstan, an employer must monthly calculate and withhold from the income of a citizen of an EAEU country (Armenia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Russia) who is temporarily working at a Kazakhstani enterprise for the period of concluding an employment or civil contract, compulsory pension contributions and compulsory occupational pension contributions, and transfer them to the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF) in the manner and on the terms established by the pension legislation of Kazakhstan. Note that the UAPF is the competent authority for the implementation of the Agreement in Kazakhstan.
This will allow in the future to provide the worker with the right to receive pension benefits from the UAPF at the expense of the pension savings he has formed upon reaching the retirement age provided for by Kazakhstani legislation, or upon establishing disability groups I and II, if the disability is established for an indefinite period.
According to the provisions of the Agreement, if the length of service of a worker acquired in the territory of one member state is not sufficient for the emergence of the right to a pension (with the exception of a accumulative pension), then the length of service acquired in other EAEU countries, including before the entry of the Agreement into force, except in cases where such length of service coincides in time. For this, the competent authorities of the EAEU countries will exchange information on the work experience of a worker through the relevant information forms developed by the authorized and competent authorities of the EAEU countries together with the EEC.
In addition, in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement, for the purpose of assigning disability pension benefits, a medical examination of a worker to determine disability will be carried out according to the legislation of the country of residence, and an examination to establish the group and duration of disability according to the legislation of the country of employment that assigns a disability pension.
Considering that each EAEU member state will pay the worker a part of the pension, adequate to the period of work and deductions of pension contributions in the country of employment, it is necessary that workers who are citizens of the EAEU countries formalize labor relations with employers in the EAEU member states, including Kazakhstan, that is, in a mandatory manner, timely concluded labor or civil contracts.
The full text of the Agreement on Pension Provision of Workers of the Member States of the Eurasian Economic Union can be found here.