Electrician certification program current counts at March 21, 2005
Applications to date 23,818
Exams authorized to date 24,513
Exams taken to date 15,201
Exams passed to date 12,702
Exams failed to date: 2,499
They need 60,000 more to pass to even think about trying to enforce this poorly written law!
Many contractors still don't even know about this law, nor do thier employees who have to take it. Many union members are not taking the test, although thier union wrote this law.
Could you imagine having several hundred thousand dollars in the pipe, and find out you have no labor? Which is the only reason to make sure your employees do take it. They loose a career, and you loose you everything.
It will be postponed again, as the numbers are not there. Nor would it be fair (Legal even) to allow seperate testing deadlines for spanish speaking, so it can not be enforced until they write a test in Spanish, (Not available until next year) or for that matter all the other languages out there. "1-800-call-ACLU"
This law is going to end in court, as there are groups out there waiting for class action on it. As all it is is a reading comprehention test. It does not make you an electrician. Being able to read a code book, is not half of it. IMO
This law is about taking over the industry though mandatory single point of entry apprenticeship. And the authors of this law lost that when the feds said no dice for any of the money that supports the many other apprenticeship programs out there in the state outside of our trade. Then they allowed non-union apprentiship programs. Now its just thorn in everyones side......
Just my opinion.
Anyway, reguardless of who pays for the test, employee, or employer, it is a tax write off on schedule C!
Its the employees "license" to work, but the employers assurance against work stoppage through insufficiant available labor. Its hard enough now to find good people, nevermind fiding ones who have taken this test. (One must cultivate a field of labor.) So its a coin toss as to who should put out more on it.
Our shop paid for most of the tests and prep for them. Except for myself, who took it really early.