Restricted electrical work: what other trades can legally touch

The phone call is always the same. A builder, a facility manager or a homeowner wants to know why the electrician will not "just hook up" the unit the refrigeration mechanic has already mounted, or the hot-water service the plumber has already stood, or the sign the shopfitter has already hung. The answer is not bloody-mindedness. It is the difference between a restricted electrical licence and an electrical licence, and it is written into every state and territory electrical safety Act.

Restricted electrical work exists because other trades have a legitimate need to isolate and reconnect the equipment they service. It does not exist to cheapen electrical contracting, to skip a certificate, or to let a competent fitter become an electrician for the last ten metres of cable. The people who hold these tickets know that when they are well trained. The people who do not hold them, and the contractors who inherit their work, need a clearer map than a Facebook argument.

This is that map. It is not a permission slip. Scopes differ by state. The current endorsement on the person's card, checked on the public register, is the only scope that matters on the day.

What a restricted licence is for

A restricted electrical licence — Energy Safe Victoria still calls the older type a D licence in conversation, formally the Restricted Electrical Worker's licence — authorises low-voltage disconnect and reconnect of specified equipment that is already connected to a fixed installation, for the purpose of repair, replacement or maintenance, in the course of another trade. Queensland's Electrical Safety Office issues restricted electrical work licences limited to the work stated on the licence. WA Building and Energy issues restricted electrical licences with a published scope of work for each trade. NSW Fair Trading and Building Commission NSW, SA Consumer and Business Services, TAS CBOS, Access Canberra and NT WorkSafe each have an equivalent class, often sitting under a national restricted electrical training pathway.

The core of the ticket is always the same sequence: identify the point of isolation, isolate, confirm the equipment is de-energised, disconnect, determine the electrical characteristics of the replacement, reconnect like-for-like, and test for safe operation. South Australia's registration notes for the national restricted electrical pathway say that sequence out loud, and then say what the registration does not permit: electrical maintenance beyond that sequence, fault-finding that becomes installation work, rewiring, alterations or additions to the fixed wiring.

"Like-for-like" is the phrase that does the heavy lifting. It means the replacement does not alter the electrical design, the installation wiring, or the rating of the circuit protection. A 4.2 kW water heater in place of a 4.2 kW water heater on the same tails, same isolator, same circuit, is the intended use. A 7.2 kW unit on the same 2.5 mm² circuit is not like-for-like. It is an alteration of the installation, and it is electrician's work.

The licence is incidental to a primary trade. Plumbers, refrigeration and air-conditioning mechanics, appliance repairers, instrumentation technicians and some mechanical fitters are the usual holders. You cannot hold a restricted electrical licence as a substitute for an apprenticeship in Electrotechnology Electrician. You hold it because your own trade would otherwise be unable to take a unit off the wall without calling a contractor every time a thermostat failed.

That is also why the licensing and compliance hub treats restricted work as a compliance topic, not as a training shortcut.

Disconnect/reconnect, and the trades that actually hold it

Refrigeration and air-conditioning is the most common restricted class on a commercial site. Queensland's Electrical Safety Office publishes a useful scope: once the holder has the required training and competency, they may disconnect and reconnect at the equipment terminals, fault-find, and repair or replace like-for-like items associated with HVAC equipment — motors, compressors, fans, thermostats, pressure sensors, overloads, contactors and proprietary starters. They may do that work in the equipment itself, or on a dedicated mechanical-services board that supplies only HVAC and takes its supply from another board. They may not do that work if the same components live in a general switchboard or distribution board.

Western Australia is similarly precise. The refrigeration and air-conditioning restricted licence covers disconnect/reconnect, fault-finding of power and control circuits, modification, replacement or repair within the R&AC package, modification of R&AC control circuits in switchboards or panels, and assembly of factory-supplied interconnecting cable between split-system components up to 4 kW. It does not authorise the holder to install or alter fixed wiring.

Victoria's Restricted Electrical Worker's licence for refrigeration and air-conditioning covers repair and replacement of air-conditioning units, including split systems, multi-head systems, HVAC motors and chillers — again as disconnect/reconnect of like-for-like equipment, not as new installation wiring.

Plumbing is the other everyday class. The typical endorsement is water heaters and, in some states, gas appliances with electrical connections. Energy Safe Victoria's guidance ties the plumber's REL to repair or replacement of electric hot-water units and replacement of elements. That is a service function. It is not a licence to rough-in a new circuit for a continuous-flow unit, to relocate an isolator that requires new cable, or to alter the switchboard so the heater can share a circuit with a dryer.

Appliance repair, instrumentation, electronics and process control have their own restricted classes. They are narrower than they sound. An appliance technician may disconnect and reconnect a fixed appliance they are servicing. They may not rewire the kitchen. An instrumentation technician may work on process control equipment within the endorsement. They may not decide that the distribution board needs a new 32 A breaker and fit one.

The National Restricted Electrical Licence training pathway produces people who can do the isolation sequence safely. It does not produce electricians. Treating the two as equivalent is how unlicensed work enters a building.

What is still licensed electrical work

The following remain electrical work for an unrestricted licence, regardless of how convenient it would be if they did not.

New circuits. New fixed wiring of any kind, including a short run from an existing isolator to a new location. Alteration of existing fixed wiring. Work in a general switchboard or distribution board, including fitting, replacing or relocating circuit-breakers that are not part of a dedicated mechanical-services board within a published restricted scope. Changing cable size, changing protection rating, or changing the earthing arrangement. Adding socket-outlets, lighting points or isolators that were not there. Installing a new split system that needs a new circuit — which is most of them, once you are honest about load and route. Installing or altering consumer mains, metering, or the connection to the distributor. Any work at a voltage or in a location outside the endorsement.

Solar, battery and inverter work is not restricted electrical work for a refrigeration mechanic or a plumber. Grid-connected inverter energy systems sit under AS/NZS 3000 and AS/NZS 4777, and they sit under an unrestricted electrical licence plus, for STC-eligible work, accreditation. A "solar plumber" who is not an electrician is a marketing phrase, not a licence class.

Testing and certification of installation work is electrician's work. A restricted licence holder tests the equipment they have reconnected, for operation and for basic safety. They do not issue a Certificate of Electrical Safety, a CCEW or the local equivalent for an alteration of the installation. If the job needed a new circuit, the certificate comes from the electrical contractor who installed it.

If you hold an electrical licence, none of this is a territorial argument. It is the same line the regulator will draw after an incident. The restricted holder who stayed inside the endorsement is not your problem. The restricted holder who ran cable is.

Supervision does not stretch the ticket

Restricted licence holders are not apprentices. You cannot "supervise" a plumber into running a new circuit and then argue that your A Grade covers them. Supervision under the electrical safety Acts is how licensed electrical workers, including apprentices, do electrical work. It is not a way to launder unlicensed work.

What you can do is work beside them, on the parts that are yours. The refrigeration mechanic isolates the package, replaces the compressor, reconnects on the existing tails. You install the new circuit, the isolator and the protection, test, and certificate. The plumber stands the cylinder. You run the cable and the isolator if the existing circuit will not carry the new load, or you confirm that the existing circuit will, in writing, before they reconnect.

Effective supervision of an electrical apprentice on the same job does not change the plumber's scope. Three licences on a roof do not merge into one.

Labour-hire arrangements are where this goes bad most often. A site supervisor asks "the mechanical guys" to terminate into the DB because the electrician is not on until Thursday. Someone does it. Later you are asked to certificate the lot. The correct response is to treat the termination as unlicensed work, isolate, inspect, and either re-do it or refuse the certificate. Putting your number on a termination you did not make, by a person who was not authorised to make it, is how a restricted-work problem becomes a contractor-licence problem.

Common illegal work contractors find after other trades

The following are not theoretical. They are what shows up when you open a board or lift a ceiling tile after another trade has "finished".

Tails into the general distribution board. A refrigeration mechanic has landed a new split-system circuit on a spare breaker, or worse, doubled up on an existing breaker, because the dedicated isolator was not there and the client wanted cool air on Friday. That is installation work in a general board. It is outside every published refrigeration restricted scope the regulators bother to write down.

New cable run as "interconnecting flex". Factory-supplied interconnecting cable between the two halves of a split system, within the wattage limit, is in the WA scope and in some other states' practice. A length of TPS the mechanic bought at the trade counter and ran through the roof space to a distant isolator is not factory interconnecting cable. It is fixed wiring.

Upsized plant on existing circuits. A 2.5 mm² circuit that once supplied a 2 kW window box now supplies a 6 kW wall-hung unit. The mechanic reconnected like-for-like in the sense that there was already a unit there. They did not reconnect like-for-like in the sense the licence uses. The protection, the cable and the voltage drop all moved.

Water heaters relocated "a bit". The plumber stood the new heat pump two metres to the left because the slab was in the way, and stretched the existing tails or added a join in the ceiling. Relocation that requires new wiring is an alteration.

Isolators fitted by the person who needed them. An isolator is electrical equipment. Fitting a new isolator on new cable is electrical installation work. Changing a failed like-for-like isolator on existing tails, within a restricted scope that covers that equipment, may be authorised. Fitting one that was never there is not.

Shared neutrals and borrowed earths. Other trades are not trained to see a shared neutral. They will reconnect what they disconnected and leave you with a polarity or earth-fault puzzle that only appears when the original circuit is also on.

Unprotected DC or control wiring treated as extra-low-voltage hobby work. Extra-low voltage is still electrical work when it is part of an electrical installation. Some restricted classes cover it; many people who "just ran a control cable" do not hold those classes.

Certificates missing, or certificates signed by the wrong person. If the work altered the installation, a restricted holder cannot finish the paper. If you find a unit energised with no certificate and no electrician, assume the work is uncertified until you have tested it yourself.

When you find these things, do not complete the other trade's sentence. Isolate. Record what you found. Tell the client, in writing, what is unlicensed or non-compliant. Bring the installation into line under your own licence, or leave it isolated. Energy Safe Victoria, the Electrical Safety Office, NSW Fair Trading, the SA Office of the Technical Regulator, WA Building and Energy, TAS CBOS, Access Canberra and NT WorkSafe all prefer a contractor who reports unlicensed work to one who quietly energises it.

What a principal contractor should put in the scope

If you are the electrical contractor on a job that also has mechanical and plumbing packages, write the line in the quote. New circuits, isolators, switchboard alterations and certificates are yours. Disconnect/reconnect of existing like-for-like plant is the other trade's, if they hold the endorsement. Anything that looks like a new run of fixed wiring comes back to you before it is pulled in.

Builders will push. They have a programme. The answer is the same answer you give when someone asks you to skip a test: no. Restricted electrical work is legal when it stays inside the endorsement. It is illegal when it is used as a cheaper electrician. You do not have to be rude about it. You do have to be exact.

A practical checklist when another trade is on the electrical parts

• Ask for the restricted licence class and number, then check it on the public register of the state where the work is happening.
• Read the endorsement, not the job title. "Refrigeration mechanic" is not a scope. The card is.
• Confirm the work is disconnect/reconnect of existing like-for-like equipment, or another task the published scope actually names.
• Stop the job if anyone is pulling new fixed wiring, landing in a general distribution board, changing protection, or relocating plant in a way that needs new cable.
• Keep apprentices and unlicensed labour off the other trade's electrical work; supervision does not enlarge a restricted ticket.
• Do the electrical installation work yourself: new circuits, isolators that were not there, switchboard alterations, earthing changes.
• Test your work to AS/NZS 3000 Section 8. Do not certificate work you did not do and cannot show was done by an authorised person.
• If you find illegal extras, isolate, write it down, tell the client, and rectify or report. Do not energise a mystery.
• Check whether a local certificate is required for the part of the work that is yours, and lodge it.
• If the equipment is solar or battery plant, do not treat any of it as restricted mechanical work.

The restricted licence is a good instrument. It lets a refrigeration mechanic service a chiller without waiting a week for a contractor to pull two tails, and it lets a plumber change an element without turning a leak into an electrical call-out. It stays a good instrument only if everyone — the other trade, the builder, and the electrician who comes after — treats the edge of the ticket as an edge.