As an employer or self-employed person

Section 30 of the Electrical Safety Act 2002 states that employers and self-employed people must ensure their business or undertaking is conducted in an electrically safe way.

This means:

• all the electrical equipment you use is electrically safe
• ensuring the electrical safety of people affected by the work you do
• property affected by the work you do is not at risk of being damaged or destroyed.

You also have an obligation to your employees. Section 209 of the Electrical Safety Regulation 2002 (PDF File, 1.02 MB) states obligations about supervising an apprentice or trainee. An apprentice or trainee with less than six months' training must not work:

• in the immediate vicinity of a live high voltage exposed part
• where there is a risk of coming into contact with a live low voltage exposed part.

An apprentice or trainee must always be supervised by an appropriately licensed electrical worker. Read Section 209 of the Electrical Safety Regulation 2002 for more information.

Register of licensed electrical workers

From 1 March 2008 the Act requires employers and self-employed persons to ensure workers are appropriately licensed (s.57AA) and to keep a register of licensed workers (s.57AB).

The register of licensed workers kept by the employer must be:

• available to an Inspector for immediate inspection when requested
• held for at least 5 years after the holder ceases to be engaged by the employer
• updated within 7 days after notification of a change in any of the prescribed details.

The register must include:

• the holder’s name
• the number of the licence or, if not issued in Queensland, the number, code or another way of identifying the licence and the jurisdiction in which it was issued
• the class of the licence
• if the licence is a restricted electrical work licence—the type of electrical work stated on the licence
• the conditions or restrictions included in the licence
• the day the licence expires.

These details are readily obtained from the actual electrical licence.

There is no set format for the register and it may be kept in electronic form.

Licence changes must be notified to employer (s. 57AC)

Holders of electrical work licences engaged to perform or supervise electrical work for an employer or a self-employed person must notify their employer in writing of any of the following changes within 14 days of it happening:

• If the electrical work licence is suspended or cancelled, surrendered, expires and is not renewed, or is amended in a way that changes the authorised work or activities or the conditions or restrictions applying to the work or activities.
• If the electrical work licence is renewed or reinstated.
• If any other prescribed details (see above) for the holder changes.

These changes reinforce safe working practices by ensuring that anyone undertaking electrical work is correctly licensed with verifiable details maintained in a way that is easily checked. The Act now also includes significant penalties for breaches.

The Electrical Safety Office will be monitoring compliance with these new provisions.

Template for register of electrical licences

A template is available (Word, 50 KB) that may be useful for your office. However you can use any format that complies with the requirements listed above.