Mark Vender
After an intense series of meetings with stakeholders from the HVAC&R industry, the NSW government is set to push the implementation of the new mechanical services licence back from October 1, 2022, to March 1, 2023. The exception to this will be the medical gas licence, which will go ahead as planned at the end of this month.
The deferment comes as welcome news to the many air conditioning and refrigeration licence holders who were scrambling to confirm how the new mechanical licence class would affect them. Specifically, the concern was that in order to perform work listed under the new mechanical services licence – including broadly defined tasks such as “testing and commissioning of mechanical heating, cooling or ventilation systems” – individuals would need a new licence.
Last week the NSW government emailed all existing licence holders and confirmed not only the plan to defer the implementation date of the new licence, but also that it was possible to continue to do work that falls under the licence an individual holds.
“If you currently hold an air-conditioning and refrigeration licence and are doing work that is listed under both mechanical services work or an air-conditioning and refrigeration work, you can continue doing that work under the licence you hold,” the NSW government said in the email.
With the deferment and some changes to the regulation expected to be passed through parliament shortly, the next step will be to continue developing a detailed description of the scope of each licence. Groups including AIRAH, AMCA, the ARC, AREMA, and RACCA are supporting the government in this process.
According to the government, more information will be made available in coming weeks on the NSW Fair Trading website.
Image by Freepik
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