What can Oceanskies Crew Limited offer your yacht crew?

Oceanskies Crew Limited (OCL) supplies a range of services that benefit Yacht Owners, Captains, Yacht Managers, and crew alike. The level of involvement your crew need from their employment can vary, from standard employment without any add on’s to a fully inclusive plan which deals with things like monitoring leave and tax & social security payments in numerous EU jurisdictions. OCL's involvement can be tailored to suit your crew employment needs.

Crew Employment

OCL is a Guernsey-registered company that conducts all its activities out of an office in Guernsey. Seafarers working on pleasure yachts under OCL are employed under a Guernsey contract and only have their yacht's flag state's laws and regulations to comply with.

This can reduce a lot of the confusion and stress that seafarers need to face when having their residential address, yacht's flag state, and employer based in different countries.

Seafarers employed to work on Commercial registered yachts are employed under a flag-state approved Seafarer Employment Agreement (SEA) whereby the governing laws and jurisdiction apply.

Having all of your crew employment provided by one company comes with its benefits, which we discuss later.

Compliance and HR

A team of HR experts are available to all clients to ensure that SEAs comply with their relevant governing bodies. The team is also available to help with additional clause requests, terminations and possible disputes. With OCL, informed guidance to support you and your crew is never far away.

Complying with Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC) requirements is highly committed to, and the crew employment team at OCL frequently attends training and conferences to ensure they are aware of any updates. Every single SEA issued will have undergone checks to ensure compliance and offer seafarers the highest level of protection. Frequent audits are conducted to check the qualifications each seafarer holds, and reminders will be issued to them if a document is nearing its expiry/has expired and needs to be renewed or revalidated.

OCL works with clients sailing flags for over 6 jurisdictions and has pre-approved SEA templates for each. The team must understand all laws & regulations for any countries they work with, and it's not something that's taken lightly, so you know you're in safe hands.

Payroll

While providing payroll, OCL does not deduct tax and social security unless otherwise agreed upon during the onboarding process or if there is a local or flag-state requirement. This allows seafarers to continue dealing with their tax and social security requirements within their country of residence, resulting in no loss of their home government state benefits.

There are a few jurisdictions where OCL can assist with the monthly tax or social security contributions. To avoid disappointment, please check upon enquiry should you hope to take advantage of any of the plans covered.

There can be a great deal of flexibility with the currency seafarers are paid in, offering control of this to the owner and yacht management. Currency options available should be discussed when onboarding a new client. Should you wish to use one that OCL doesn't currently work with, it may be something they can introduce. As a payroll provider, it's essential to make everything as convenient for the client as possible, flexibility of currencies when paying crew who work and live in all corners of the world is just the start of what OCL can do.

CrewMate app

The marine industry can often be unpredictable and have extremely complex changes, so having a crew employment provider deal with your seafarers' monthly salaries can create stability for them. An adaptable crew employment system, such as CrewMate, will allow for seamless fluctuation in seasons, operational needs, and crew sizes without seafarers being bombarded with paperwork or delayed payments every time a change occurs.

CrewMate is OCL's crew employment system, which has an app designed with seafarers' usage in mind. This is the platform that the crew employment team use daily. Managers & crew are all entitled to gain access, meaning everyone sees the same data, and everything is secure & protected. Contractual changes, expenses and updating details can all be done in one place, removing the need to send private data & documents through emails.

The app gives seafarers one location to view and update their personal details at their convenience. Not only this, but it's also a place for them to store all professional documents, receive expiration reminders, and view all contractual documents. There are pages available to view booked leave & their current leave balance, request & track expenses, and view payslips as soon as they're available. Finally, there is no limit on how long seafarers can use the app for. Should their employment under OCL cease, they will still have full access to the app to check back on old documents at their convenience.

Utilising the full-service

Having your full crew employment provided by the one company can be extremely useful for everyone involved. When employment is set up and overseen in the same office as the crew's monthly salary payments it leads to a broader understanding of the entire process, and you shouldn't have any communication issues regarding salaries and monthly/annual allowances that may change. OCL’s set up means crew employment information can be passed on in-house, reducing seafarers' administrative burdens.

Should there be any employment-related disputes, they will be dealt with efficiently by OCL's HR experts. This team works together with the payment team, resulting in little delay in transferring funds when disputes have been resolved.

If you've been considering using an inclusive crew employment provider for your seafarers, contact crew@oceanskies.com to book your meeting. We can discuss your exact requirements and identify how Oceanskies Crew Limited can help you.

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