ising from the business.
The people with a 'duty of care' include:
- persons conducting a business or undertaking
- people responsible for management or control of electrical equipment and electrical installations
- people undertaking electrical work on or close to energised electrical equipment, including electrical installations.
For one to operate as an electrician, you must obtain an electrician's licence that entitles you to work on electrical installation and maintenance work without supervision.
Electrical work is strictly regulated and must only be performed by a licenced electrician or electrical contractor. Unfortunately, there is not one single licencing body as requirements vary throughout the different States of Australia.
Frequently, a certificate of electrical safety must be presented to the regulatory body after the completion of electrical works.
The high risk of accidents involved in this trade means testing of safety equipment needs to be done regularly as per the regulations of different states.
All electricians are also required to follow State and local building codes as well as the National Electrical Code as they perform their work.
Some of the Australian standards that can aid electricians in satisfying the obligations of their licence include:
- AS/NZS 4836:2011 Safe working on low-voltage electrical installations and equipment
- AS/NZS 3000:2007 Electrical installations (the Wiring Rules)
- AS/NZS 3012:2010 Electrical Installations – Construction and demolition sites
- AS/NZS 3760:2010 In-service safety inspection and testing of electrical equipment
- AS/NZS 3017:2007 Electrical installations – Verification guidelines
Though many foreign workers may be highly skilled in the trade, there often exist different requirements to work in Australia presenting a skills gap.
Such workers initially use a provisional licence and must be supervised. They are required to undertake gap training in order to obtain this licence for a regulated time frame, usually one year.
After completing the training and supervised employment, one can apply for an Australian qualification for the trade. This is then followed by the application for a full electrician's licence.