Business Supervisors

About Business Supervisors

Business Supervisors manage and administer a Registered Electrical Contractor's (REC) electrical contracting work.

Legal requirements

To ensure an REC meets obligations, a Business Supervisor must understand and follow applicable sections of the following legislation:

• Electricity Safety Act 1998 (the Act) - in particular Part 3
• Electricity Safety (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 2020

You must

To ensure an REC meets obligations, as a Business Supervisor you must ensure:

• the REC’s registration is active and is renewed before it expires
• the contact details for the REC are current
• the business or company name used by the REC (if applicable) is currently registered with ASIC
• the ABN used by the REC is correctly registered to the REC
• the REC holds the prescribed insurance
• any advertisement, notice or statement includes the registered number of the REC
• there is an up-to-date register of employees who are
  • technical supervisors
  • licensed electrical installation workers.
• the REC only employs workers to do work allowed by their licence class, for example:
  • A Grade Electrician
  • Restricted Electrical Licence holder
  • Switchgear worker.

Certificate of Electrical Safety (COES) obligations

You must ensure that completed COES follows the Act and Regulations.

You're required to:

• buy the needed COES
• provide Licensed Electrical Workers (LEWs) with appropriate COES
• ensure that the LEW who completed the electrical work completes a COES
• ensure that all details on the COES are accurate
• ensure the ‘description of work’ details the completed electrical work performed
• give the completed COES to the person for whom the work was done within the required time
• if using a paper COES, you must send a copy to Energy Safe.

Prescribed electrical installations

In order to ensure the REC meets their obligations you must ensure that a Licensed Electrical Inspector (LEI) inspects prescribed installation work:

• before connecting the electricity supply to the electrical installation
• if the electrical circuits or electrical equipment were not disconnected from electricity supply
• before the electrical installation work is first used after completing the installation.

An LEI must complete a Certificate of Inspection under Section 45 of the Act if required for a COES. Within the required time, you must send us a copy of that COES.

If it's not a periodic COES, you must send us an electronic notification of the Certificate of Compliance. This notification is due 2 business days after finishing the work.

Note: You don't need to send us COES generated in ESVConnect.

You must not

You must not direct or permit anyone to do non-compliant electrical installation work. All work must comply with the Act or the Regulations.

Qualification requirements

See Business Supervisor qualifications for information about courses and approved qualifications.

Nomination form

Business supervisors must be a person responsible for the day-to-day management and administration of the electrical
contracting business and hold an appropriate qualification or have the required experience.

Business Supervisors must indicate that they accept nomination in the role by completing and returning this completed consent form by email to licensing@energysafe.vic.gov.au

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