Employment agencies (vcu) safety and health certification

The continuous pursuit of safe working conditions and the promotion of general health has ensured that practical safety, health and environmental aspects with the associated risks during the work execution have been included in a certifiable standard i.e. VCA (Safety, health and environmental check-list contractors - veiligheid, gezondheid en milieu checklist aannemers). VCA examines the VGM management system for the benefit of its own employees and employees of the contractor's subcontractors. From the VCA standard, a variant has finally emerged that relates to the temporary employment and outsourcing industry: VCU. 

VCU 2011/05 

The current version of the VCU (Checklist for Employment Agencies - Veiligheids Checklist Uitzendbureaus) standard, originating from VCA, with health and safety as core aspects, was introduced in 2011 after increasing new insights. In order to be eligible for certification in accordance with the VCU standard, temporary employment agencies must comply with the NEN 4400 standard which, from a legal framework, imposes requirements on personnel and payroll administration, among other things. This is with the aim of facilitating the hiring and outsourcing of work and (sub)contracting of work, and combating fraud. 

SCOPE 

The VCU standard focuses specifically on temporary employment and outsourcing offices that send staff to VCA certified companies working in a high-risk environment with increased health and safety risks. Most of these are construction or maintenance works in sectors such as mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering and, as well as technically oriented work including insulation, scaffolding, cleaning, etc. 

STANDARD CONTENT 

The VCU standard is structured based on the related certification standards VCA*, VCA** and VCAP, made up of so-called 'must questions'. For VCU, one must meet 19 must questions related to organisation, health and safety policy, vocational training and experience, VG training and medical fitness, accidents with absenteeism and occupational health care. 

CERTIFICATION PROCESS 

The VCU certification process follows the same principle as all other generic management system standards, based on an implementation methodology in a fixed cycle of 3 years. After a certification audit consisting of a preliminary and review examination, the certified organisation is subject to annual interim investigations. Thus, we can determine whether the standard requirements are still being met. At the end of the entire cycle, the certified organisation can start a new cycle of 3 years, starting with a recertification audit. 

Would you like to receive more detailed information about the practice of this certification? Take a look at our brochure The Certification process which you can download here on our website.  

ADDITIONAL STANDARDS 

VCU can be applied as a stand-alone certification standard, but also in combination with management system standards such as ISO 9001 (quality) or ISO 14001 (environment) or other, sector-specific certification standards.