Ek's Home   |   Forum   |   Chat   |   Electrical Links   |  





Subject - California Licensing Question
RS377 I found out today that my appication was approved for my state license, and I have a quick question: Does anyone know how this is going ot be enforced?

Will there be inspectors asking for cards on jobsites, or will it be taken care of on a management level?

One thing I heard from the local IBEW business manager, is that the companies workmans comp carrier will start requiring license numbers in order to cover people.

Any ideas?
ravengotu actually the state said something about inspections and that the local inspector will when he visits the job site...but how it will really work is anyones guess...its just a way to get money for the state as i heard it has been extended till 07..
iwire An electrician from CA posted this on another forum, the links he provided seem to have all the answers.

quote:
For those who have not heard yet, all employees of C-10 contractors must be "certified" by the state DAS to work as "electricians" in California by Jan 1 2005. (Any employee who does any work of any kind, on systems 100VA or more, so no the secretary does not need to be, but it wouldn't hurt.

This is an issue I have followed for some time, and have been e-mailing, writing, and calling about it for some time now. (In my endless spare time...

Anyway, I finally got some additional information about some un-answered questions today, from one of the main figures in the program, Jeanie Kaatz at the DAS.

Two of the questions I asked were:

Will the law be enforced on the January 1 2005 date, as the statistics of the program are very low? (Only 7500 Electricians in the whole state of California right now?????)

- Answer: 'The Law will be enforceable on Jan 1, 2005 unless it is postponed in the next DAS Council Meeting.' (Which she did not seem to think that it would be an issue. ?????????)

How will the law be enforced, and by whom?

Answer: 'The Law will be enforced by "insurability".' "Insurance providers will be asking for certification before they renew your policy" Meaning Workmen's Comp, and Liability Insurance Companies will require documentation of certification.

What this all means, is that soon, the Electrical Trade in California will change, for better or worse, but it will change. In two months!

For more information about this do a search with "Electrician Certification California" or hit this site: http://www.dir.ca.gov/DAS/ElectricalTrade.htm

Or this one: http://www.dir.ca.gov/DAS/ECU_FAQ.htm



RS377 Thank you for the reply
Romex Racer I'd like to clear up some misconceptions. The law does not state that all electrical workers must be certified. A certified electrician will be permitted to supervise one uncertified electrician as long as that person is in an apprentiship training program and the DAS has been notified.

This punitive rule only applies to C-10 licence holders. It does not apply to DIYs, electricians working at schools, factories, General contractors, handy men, etc. Since electricians working for C-10 holders are likely to do the best work of the catagories I've mentioned and their work is very likely to be inspected which generally does not occur for the other catagories, this is clearly a very illogical requirement.

An EC must have certified electricians, but a GC need not. On the smaller residential jobs, I know many GC's who slop in their own wiring and they will be allowed to continue to do so.

If you hire workers from Labor Ready they do not need to be certified as they are not your employees. If your company does not posess a C-10 license, your employees need not be certified.

The DAS wants a database of every electrician working in California. This database will be public record and the IBEW will use it for their recruitment efforts.

I see a lot of people gleefully embracing this, forgetting that the whole program was invented by the IBEW and will be administered by government employees with a rich history of screwing up whatever they touch.

The compliance rate will be very low. The low compliance rate is not because the test is so hard, but because the lack of credibility our state government enjoys with the governed.

20 million illegal aliens, the biggest state deficit in California history, and this is what our leader our up to?

If it's to be enforced by insurance companies, that may be easier said than done. There is no statutory requirement for them to do so, and when confronted with the certain loss of revenue this will cause, their policing of this will be minimal at best.

This is a bad law for all the reasons I've mentioned.

Cheers!
...............................RR