10. Licensing
115. Registered electrical and gas workers are legally obliged to obtain a practising licence before undertaking "prescribed work" and "gasfitting" within the scope set for their class of registration. Both the EWRB and the PG&D Board issue licences on an annual basis. A licence expires if it is not renewed or if the applicant is de-registered. The current licensing fees are $55 to $100 for electrical workers, $400 for an electrical employer licence; $54 to $58 for gas workers; and $495 for a gas employer licence.
116. The EWRB issues licences for line mechanics, electricians, electrical inspectors and three categories of electrical service technicians, and a Provisional Licence (which allows people with the necessary training and experience to register while they are waiting for examination results). The EWRB can place restrictions on the work that may be carried out by people in their class of registration. Such restrictions may be the result of disciplinary action. The EWRB also issues Qualified Electrical Engineer identification cards to qualified electrical engineers who are entitled to carry out prescribed electrical work. (The Electricity Act recognises engineers registered prior to 1992 as being entitled to carry out electrical work without having to be licensed or to obtain a practising licence.)
117. The provision for qualified engineers exists as a "grandfather" provision. The review team recommends that the need for this provision be reviewed and that the EWRB consider what transitional arrangements, if any, would be required to allow for qualified engineers to move to full licensing.
118. The PG&D Board issues five types of licences: Provisional (for people whose application is under consideration by the Board, allowing them to practice in the class of licence applied for); Limited (required for unregistered gas workers, such as apprentices); and licences for the three classes of registration. The PG&D Board also has the power to authorise any person to carry out gas work, though this may be time limited or given on certain conditions.
119. The primary purpose of licensing is to provide those unable to judge the competence of a worker with an up-front means of identifying competent workers. The identifier needs to be clearly recognisable. Any increase in the number of licence classes, and therefore identifiers, to reflect greater specialisation and multi-skilling under the proposed regime is likely to confuse consumers and add unnecessary compliance costs. Therefore, the review team recommends that an amended, but simplified version of the current classification system be maintained.
120. For clarity, the identifying card a licensed worker has should be endorsed for domestic or non-domestic work, or both. Those working under an employer license should also be required to carry an approved identifier.
121. The review team suggests that the following changes be considered to improve the current classification system and to accommodate the proposed safety regime:
- The title "Registered Gasfitter" is confusing for the public and needs to be amended. Unlike a Registered Electrician, a Registered Gasfitter is not authorised to certify gas work.
- The "Gas Inspector" classification needs to be amended or removed, as an anomaly has rendered this class virtually redundant by preventing workers in this class from certifying work.
- The criteria used to issue Provisional Licences, Limited Licences and to give authorisations will need to be reviewed to ensure they are sufficiently transparent to enable consistency to be monitored.
- The need for the "Line Mechanic" class will need to be reviewed as most of the work undertaken by electrical line mechanics will no longer be required to be undertaken by licensed workers.
- If gas appliance repair and maintenance work requires licensed workers it may be necessary to create a new gas service technician class.
122. The review team considers that the need for licensing workers on an annual basis should be reviewed. For instance, having licences spanning two years is one possibility. The financial and other implications of any change would need to be carefully considered.
123. The review team believes that there needs to be greater consistency between the registration/licensing and classification systems, and the identification cards employed under the electrical and gas regimes particularly as companies move into joint ownership of gas and electrical assets.
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