Oceanskies Crew Passes Annual MLC Inspection By Lloyd's Register With No Observations or Deficiencies

Oceanskies Crew is pleased to announce that they have yet again successfully passed their annual Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) audit by Lloyd’s Register with no observations or deficiencies.

This means that the Statement of Compliance issued by Lloyd’s Register to Oceanskies Crew is validated for another year confirming that the company is fully compliant with standard A1.4 and guidelines B1.4 of the MLC 2006.

Oceanskies Crew is certified as an MLC compliant Seafarer Recruitment and Placement Service not only as best practice but to legally provide employment and payroll services to commercial vessels.

Unlike the majority of our competitors Oceanskies Crew do not offer any wider yacht management or crew recruitment services allowing us to work seamlessly with yacht management companies around the world on a non-compete basis.

Due to COVID restrictions the audit was once again performed virtually with the auditor being granted full access to our crew system.

Oceanskies Crew is not only fully based in Guernsey but it is also owned and run by genuine Guernsey residents unlike some crew companies that are registered offshore but owned and/or controlled onshore.

Oceanskies Crew is able to efficiently and cost effectively employ and pay crew working onboard any yacht of any size whether operated privately or commercially.

Pricing is really straight forward at EUR 260.00 take on per crew member, (including contract), then EUR 80.00 per month per crew member including outbound  bank charges. We also offer bespoke or tailored  quotes / proposals for  larger yachts and industry professionals such as yacht management companies.

There are no other charges, (competitor companies charge for setting up companies, their underlying MLC compliance, termination of contracts and some charge on a percentage of salary basis).

It is therefore as cost-effective and straight forward to employ one crew member as it is to employ many crew members making Oceanskies Crew an ideal employment and payroll vehicle for both small and large yachts.

The Oceanskies Crew system works by the yacht owner and/or yacht/crew manager appointing Oceanskies Crew to provide the crew to a particular vessel or fleet either on a stand-alone basis or as part of a third party management structure. 

In turn Oceanskies Crew employs the crew and the with a contract of employment and takes responsibility for the administration of their employment such as making their salary payments, issuing payslips etc.

For Malta flagged yachts we can register EU resident crew members in Malta for social security, as per EU Regulation 883/2004. The social security contributions are currently set at EUR 48.57 for the employer and EUR 48.57 for the employee each week. This is based on the number of Mondays in the month worked therefore some months will be 5 and others 4. There are no extra charges from us for the administration of these payments.

Oceanskies Crew currently employs crew onboard yachts ranging in size from small single Captain vessels to the largest superyachts working for owners, family offices and some of the world's leading yacht managers.

We ‘white label’ our crew services behind the scenes to a number of yacht management companies and independent yacht managers and we have successfully integrated our systems with their systems to minimise duplication and facilitate ease of operation.

The service that we provide runs on some very impressive IT through our own  in-house payroll software. The software enables us to manage the whole payroll in a secure web based environment. We can also provide access to clients via an online login and crew via our neutrally branded app “CrewMate”.  This means that all parties involved, including the manager, have access to the same real time information stored in a secure environment. Further information can be found be found about the app here on our website:

CrewMate App Guide

Our portal / app’s level of security is the same, if not greater than that of International Banks. As of January 1st, 2021, cyber security will come under the remit of the International Safety Management System (ISM) Code, supported by the IMO Resolution MSC.428(98), requiring shipowners, managers and Captains to assess cyber risk and implement relevant measures. A number of yachts use our system as a measure to increase their cyber security and we are trying to reduce the use of email to share private, confidential and sensitive information due to an increasing threat of emails being intercepted.

As an MLC compliant SRPS we are obliged to hold a copy of all crew members certificates, passports and qualifications and monitor the expiry dates. The CrewMate application allows Captains and crew to manage their own certificates, for example, if a crew member renews their ENG1, all they need to do is take a photo / screenshot of the renewed document, upload it to the app and insert the expiry date whereas the traditional method would be to print, scan, email and make a note somewhere of the expiry date. The document is then accessible on the app and the app sends renewal reminder notifications. The system also allows to crew to manage their banks details in a safe and secure environment.

Our employment and payroll service is one of the most cost effective within the yachting sector. We can keep our fees low by utilising new technology for example, the sharing of documents and data via our portal and application, which ultimately is a time/cost saving.

For further information about the Oceanskies Crew system please do not hesitate to contact us.

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