Certificate for working safely (VCA)
Do you do high-risk work in places with a high safety risk? For example, on a construction site, in factories or at installations, with risks of explosion, fire or personal injury? If so, your client may ask to see your company’s Safety Checklist for Contractors (SCC) certificate (Veiligheid Checklist Aannemers, VCA).
What is an SCC certificate?
SCC is the abbreviation for Safety, Health and Environment Checklist Contractors. With an SCC certificate, you show that you and your employees work safely and healthily within your business.
An SCC certificate is not compulsory. But clients may ask for it. For instance, if they have to comply with the duty of verification (in Dutch). This means that, as the client, they have to ensure that everyone has to (be able to) work safely. With an SCC certificate, you help your clients comply with the rules.
Clients in the following industries often require an SCC certificate:
- (scaffolding) construction
- electrical engineering
- civil engineering, also known as road and hydraulic engineering
- transport
- (petro)chemical industry; businesses that produce or process chemical substances, such as medicines, plastics or petroleum
Obtaining the VCA certificate
Obtaining SCC certification for your business consists of a few steps:
- Determine what level of certification your business needs. For this, you can use the SCC guide from the Foundation for Safety Cooperation (SSVV). SSVV is an alliance of 24 (industry) organisations and registers all SCC certifications.
- Check which safety, health and environmental requirements you already meet. Do you not yet meet all the requirements? Draw up an action plan. Use the SSVV step-by-step guide for this.
- Submit a certification application to a recognised certification body. This body assesses whether you meet all the requirements for an SCC certificate (audit).
Extending the SCC certificate
An SCC certificate is valid for 3 years. Each year, the certification body checks whether you meet the requirements. After 3 years, you can renew your SCC certificate. To do so, you can reapply for an SCC certificate.
SCC certificate in other countries
Some countries accept an SCC certificate. Other countries have a safety system similar to SCC. For example:
- Belgium also uses the SCC safety system. SCC certificates in Belgium and the Netherlands are (almost) the same.
- France uses the safety certificate Manuel d'Amélioration Sécurité Santé Environnement des Entreprises (MASE). France only accepts the VCA Petrochemie level of the Dutch VCA certificate. Conversely, MASE is accepted for all levels in the Netherlands.
- Germany and Austria use Sicherheits Certifikat Contraktoren (SCC). Germany and Austria accept the SCC certificate. In the Netherlands, SCC is also accepted
Questions relating to this article?
Please contact the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce, KVK