Duties and responsibilities of the Master Electrician License holder

A New Hampshire master license is a license to run electrical work. RSA 319-C:2 defines a master electrician as a person who employs others to make electrical installations or makes them for his or her own account, and the Board's rules attach duties to that role: who the master may employ, how apprentices must be supervised, how the master must check the work of journeymen, what the master must carry, and what the master must never do. This lesson sets out those duties, explains the supervision ratios in detail, and shows how Art has run Merrimack Bend so that Kayla can take over without surprises.

The sources are RSA 319-C, especially sections 2, 2-a, 7 and 15, and the Board's rules in Elec 404 and Elec 405. The Board's rules on unprofessional conduct and discipline are summarized in general terms, because their exact wording and the fine amounts the Board may impose change. Read the current rules before relying on a detail.

Employing licensed people

The first duty is to employ only people who may lawfully do the work. A journeyman must be employed by a licensed master or a firm licensed under RSA 319-C:10. An apprentice must be employed by a master or an employer that employs one, must be registered and must carry a current identification card. RSA 319-C:15 makes it a violation to employ an unlicensed person in the electrical business who is not a registered apprentice. A master who hires a helper and lets the helper pull wire before the registration arrives is violating the statute, however short the gap.

Merrimack Bend's process is simple. Denise does not put a new electrical worker on the schedule until she has a copy of the license or the apprentice identification card, and she keeps a spreadsheet of expiration dates. Each month she runs a report of cards and licenses expiring in the next sixty days and gives it to Art. When Kayla becomes the master in charge, the report will come to her.

Supervising apprentices

Apprentices must be directly supervised by a master or journeyman at all times, under Elec 404.05. High or medium voltage trainees must be directly supervised at the job site at all times by a high or medium voltage, master or journeyman electrician. Direct supervision means a licensed electrician on the job with the apprentice, not a journeyman checking in by phone from another site.

The number of apprentices each licensed electrician may supervise is set both in the statute, RSA 319-C:2-a, and in the rule, Elec 404.05. A journeyman in the first year after initial licensure may directly supervise only one apprentice. From the first anniversary of licensure, a journeyman may directly supervise up to two. On a single work site, up to three journeymen may each supervise two apprentices, and any additional journeymen may each supervise one. Up to six masters on a site may each supervise two apprentices, and any additional masters may each supervise one. No more than six licensed electricians, masters or journeymen together, may each directly supervise two apprentices on one site.

# Apprentice limit on one site under Elec 404.05 (journeymen only, illustrative)
def site_limit(senior_journeymen, first_year_journeymen):
    two_each = min(senior_journeymen, 3)          # up to 3 journeymen may take two
    one_each = senior_journeymen - two_each       # others take one
    return two_each * 2 + one_each + first_year_journeymen

print("Kayla's crew:", site_limit(4, 1))
print("Two senior, no first-year:", site_limit(2, 0))
print("Six senior, two first-year:", site_limit(6, 2))

Kayla's crew: 8
Two senior, no first-year: 4
Six senior, two first-year: 11

The sample code models only journeymen; a site with masters working on it adds their allowance, subject to the site cap of six licensed electricians taking two each. On the exam, read every fact: whether each person is a master or journeyman, how long the journeyman has been licensed, and whether the person is actually on the site.

Inspecting the journeymen's work

Elec 404.05 also gives the master a specific inspection duty. A master electrician must periodically inspect the installations of the journeymen the master directs and supervises, and must perform a final inspection of each journeyman's completed installation. The rule turns the master's name on the permit into a personal obligation: the master is expected to have looked at the work.

Art meets the rule with a routine that Kayla will keep. Every active job gets a master visit at least once a week, with a short checklist and photographs filed in the job folder. Before every final inspection by the town, Art or another master walks the job with the lead journeyman and signs a final checklist. On a large job the visits are more frequent. When Kayla becomes the master in charge, the company will have two masters for a while, and they will split the visits.

Permits, the license and the code

The master's name and license number go on the permit application, and the master is the person the building official holds responsible for the work. RSA 319-C:7, III requires the license to be displayed at the principal place of business or carried and shown on request to an inspector, and RSA 319-C:5, V lets local building officials check it. Elec 404.04 requires compliance with the electrical code. Put together, a master must pull the permit before work starts, make sure the work meets the code that governs the permit, and be able to show the license.

What the master must never do

Some conduct is forbidden outright. The master may not let another person or company use the master's license to pull permits or qualify a firm when the master is not actually directing the work. The master may not falsely represent that someone is licensed. The master may not obtain a license or permit by fraud. The Board's rules on unprofessional conduct in Elec 405.01 list conduct that can lead to discipline, which may include reprimand, suspension, revocation and fines under Elec 405.02. RSA 319-C:15 makes violations of the chapter or the Board's rules a misdemeanor for a natural person and a felony for any other person.

License lending is the trap that catches experienced electricians. A retired master may be asked to let a former employee's new company list him as its master for a monthly fee, with no real role in the work. That arrangement defeats the purpose of Elec 303.01, which requires a master directly in charge of all aspects of the firm's installations, and of Elec 404.05, which requires the master to inspect the journeymen's work. It exposes the retired master to discipline and the company to prosecution.

Records and faulty wiring

Records protect a master. A job file with the permit, inspection results, master visit checklists and the final walk shows that the master did the job the rules require. RSA 319-C:14-a matters here: when the State Fire Marshal finds that faulty wiring was a principal cause of a fire, the Board investigates, and if a licensed person installed the wiring, the Board may order that person to show cause why the license should not be suspended or revoked. A master who can produce a clean file for that installation is in a far better position than one who cannot.

Records also matter for apprentices. Because installations made by an apprentice without direct supervision, or on an expired card, are recorded in the apprentice's file, a master who lets an apprentice work alone harms the apprentice's future as well as risking discipline. Kayla remembers her own apprentice years and is strict about this.

When the master leaves

A master's duties do not end with good intentions. If a master in charge leaves a firm, the firm's license becomes void under RSA 319-C:7, III, and the firm must file the change with the Board within 30 days under Elec 404.02. Until a new master is in place, the firm's journeymen cannot lawfully work under the firm's license. Lesson 8 covers the firm side; for the master, the lesson is to plan succession, as Art is doing, rather than leave a company to discover the gap after the fact.

Building a supervision routine

Rules on paper are only as good as the routine that carries them out. Art's weekly routine at Merrimack Bend is worth describing because it covers every duty in this lesson. On Monday morning he reviews the schedule with the lead journeymen and checks that every apprentice is assigned to a specific journeyman on a specific site, within the ratios. On Tuesday through Thursday he visits active jobs, at least one visit per job per week, with a checklist covering workmanship, code compliance, safety, housekeeping and paperwork. On Friday he reviews the week's inspection results and correction notices, signs off any final walks, and reads Denise's report of expiring cards and licenses.

Kayla has added two items to the routine for when she takes over. First, a short monthly meeting with each apprentice to review the log of hours and the schooling, so that no apprentice reaches the end of a card year without proof of schooling. Second, a quarterly review of each journeyman's work, drawing on the master visit checklists and the inspection record, so that coaching happens before a pattern becomes a problem. Both items take little time, and both create the record that shows the Board, an insurer or a customer that the master has been doing the job.