As part of its emergency support programme to cushion the economic impact of COVID-19, the government is putting in place the Seychelles Employee Transition Scheme (Sets), a temporary scheme to assist workers who will be made redundant soon.

However unlike schemes such as the Unemployment Relief Scheme (URS), Sets will cater solely to Seychellois who will lose their jobs as from July 1 when employers will regain their legal ability to make their Seychellois workers redundant.

It has been predicted that existing programmes like the URS will be overwhelmed and will not have enough resources to deal with the large influx of people who will be made redundant.

This is where Sets expects to step in as a state owned company to facilitate retraining, up-skilling, and temporary work placement services.

Sets will also assist with re-entry into the labour market as job openings become available while providing financial support.

Sets expects to be incorporated as a fully-fledged company before the end of this month.

Guy Morel, who is facilitating the process, explained that Sets expects to be operational as from July 1, to end of December 31.

Aside from employees who are made redundant, those who were self-employed as well as business owners who have had to shut down their businesses due to economic hardship will also be welcomed onboard Sets.

“Sets will be the vehicle used to make the transition from employment to redundancy less painful for those affected,” Mr Morel highlighted.

He noted that those who join Sets will be provided with financial support from the government in the form of payment of salaries. They expect to be paid their base salary which they were receiving prior to being let go.

“The re-skilling will be done in partnership with professional centres and we have a wide portfolio of professional centres in Seychelles that can be part of our network,” Mr Morel explained.

“But also we will use the window period between July and December to prepare Seychellois workers for potential work that could be available as a result of organisations re-structuring their expatriate workers, taking into consideration that we have almost 20,000 work posts currently occupied by expatriates. The opportunities are there but we simply have to match the right talents with the right posts.”

Mr Morel noted that Sets’ network and partnership will also include organisations in the private sector, civil society and government to manage this “quite complex socio economic situation” that is inevitable.

Sets’ operational strategy is to take in around a dozen persons who will become redundant as from July to help run the company, who will be paid their base salary as well.

It expects to operate at “minimal cost” by making use of district administration centres in the districts where it plans to set up offices – Anse Royale, La Digue, Praslin – and a government-owned location for its Victoria headquarters.

Elsie Pointe