What is VCU?

Updated 30 Sept 2026

Short answer

VCU is the safety certification for temp and staffing agencies that place workers in risky work or risky environments. Where VCA certifies the contractor who does the job, VCU certifies how the agency selects, instructs and follows up its temp workers. The client decides whether it is required; no law demands it.

Contractor versus agency

VCA asks how a contractor organises safety, health and environment on the work it carries out for a client. VCU asks something similar of an agency that does not do the work itself but supplies the people who do. The scheme is managed by SSVV in the Netherlands and BeSaCC-VCA in Belgium. SSVV aims it at agencies that place workers in risky work or a risky environment, and a client can require it even when the client holds no VCA certificate itself.

VCA is for the company that does the job, VCU for the agency that supplies the people.

What the checklist asks

The VCU checklist contains only must questions, and a question passes only when all its minimum requirements are met. It looks at the agency's organisation and safety policy, the vocational training, experience, safety training and medical fitness of its temps, how requests are handled and how temps are selected, instructed, supervised and evaluated, lost-time accidents, and occupational health care.

What it does not replace

VCU proves the agency's system, not the site. The temp still needs the user company's own instruction before the first shift: in Belgium through the werkpostfiche, in the Netherlands through the description of risks from the RI&E that the user company hands the agency in time (Arbowet art. 5 lid 5). The guide to onboarding temp workers before the first shift covers that handover.

Contractor versus agency

What the checklist asks

What it does not replace

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