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9 August 2013
In little over two weeks from now (as of 20 August 2013), the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) will enter into force worldwide. Atlas Services Group was one of the first Dutch crewing agencies to be issued with a MLC certificate. This week, the last office (Singapore) has been certified, which means the entire Marine division has now been audited and issued with a MLC certificate.
Worldwide certification
At the beginning of 2011, Atlas already requested for an audit by meaning of a pre qualification. Based on the gap analysis that was made, Atlas changed some of the procedures and reviewed and adjusted employment contracts. This resulted in certification of the office of our Latvian colleagues in the same year. Approximately one year later, in October 2012, the Dutch government made a final decision on the way in which maritime employment agencies had to be certified. Within two months from then, the Dutch office got issued with the MLC certificate. In March, June and July of 2013, certification followed for respectively our Ukraine, Indonesia, Cyprus and Singapore offices.
Never-ending process
Paul Steeghs, director ASG Marine, states: “I am pleased all our offices have been audited and issued, as two of the most vital elements in our industry are compliance and quality assurance. However, the fact we are certified now, does not imply we can sit back quietly; recertification will be done on a yearly basis. By organising courses and appointing divisional QA Managers, we are aiming to structure our quality insurance processes in an even better way”.
Singapore
On 31 July, Bureau Veritas certified the last ASG office: that of our colleagues in Singapore. The auditor was impressed of the inhouse knowledge of ASG Singapore in regard to ISO and MLC. This formed a big plus whereby the auditor had no uncertainties in handing out the certificate.
