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Victoria has eleven electrical licence and registration categories. Three of them decide whether your hire can legally do your work.
Electrician's licence (A Grade) - the full licence. This is what a general commercial or industrial electrical role needs.
Restricted Electrical Worker's licence (REL) - a limited scope, typically the electrical work attached to another trade. A refrigeration technician or plumber doing the electrical portion of their own job. It is not a junior A Grade; it is a different, narrower authorisation.
Registered Electrical Contractor (REC) - this one belongs to your business, not your electrician. It is the registration that lets a business contract for electrical work and issue Certificates of Electrical Safety.
That third one is where employers come unstuck. Hiring A Grade electricians does not make your business an REC. Picture a growing mechanical services company with four A Grade electricians on the books that starts quoting electrical work directly. Every person on the tools is properly licensed. The business contracting for the work is not registered. Nobody notices until a client asks for the REC number.
Licensed Electrical Inspector (LEI), Supervised Worker's licence (L), Electrician (Supervised) Worker's (ES), Occupier's licence (renewals only - no new ones issued), Switchgear Worker's licence (SW), Lineworker's licence, Employers of electrical workers registration (EMP, which lets a business purchase Certificates of Electrical Safety), and Spotter's registration.
Most employers will never need to think about these. The two worth knowing exist are EMP, if your business needs to buy Certificates of Electrical Safety without being a full REC, and the supervised categories, which mean exactly what they say - supervision is a licence condition, not a preference.
Melbourne is currently the cheapest capital-city market in Australia for electricians. SEEK's data as at 1 September 2026 puts Melbourne at $85,000-$100,000 against a national average of $95,000-$115,000 and Brisbane at $100,000-$120,000.
That matters for licensing in a specific way: if you are struggling to fill an A Grade role at Melbourne rates, an interstate candidate is a genuine option, and getting them licensed in Victoria is more straightforward than most employers assume. More on that below.
Victoria participates in Automatic Mutual Recognition (AMR). An electrician licensed in a participating jurisdiction does not need to obtain a separate Victorian licence to do work they are already licensed for.
They do have to notify. Registration goes through ESVConnect or an AMR notification form, and on approval they receive a Victorian licence number - no physical card is issued.
Three catches worth knowing:
Queensland is a partial exception. A Queensland A Grade equivalent can use AMR after notifying. Other Queensland licence types need a full Mutual Recognition application instead.
New Zealand workers go through full Mutual Recognition, not AMR.
Permanent relocation changes things. Anyone moving to Victoria permanently has to convert to a full Victorian licence. AMR covers someone whose principal place of work remains their home state. If you are hiring a Queensland electrician who is moving to Melbourne for the job, that is a conversion, not a notification.
Name A Grade in the job ad if that is what the work needs. Check your own REC status before you quote electrical work. And if the Melbourne market is thin at your budget, look interstate - the licensing path is more open than the salary gap suggests.
HJ Recruitment places permanent electrical, plumbing, HVAC and refrigeration, fire and solar tradespeople with Australian employers.
Sources- Energy Safe Victoria - Electrical licence types- Energy Safe Victoria - Interstate electrical workers- SEEK - Electrician salary, Melbourne
