Five years ago, the General Assembly passed a law intended to bring peace to what was then the combative world of telecommunications systems installation. By many accounts, the bill did its job: It created a system for licensing contractors who install telecommunications systems which electricians and telecommunications workers could agree upon. But about two years ago the creators of the bill discovered a glitch in the new law which gave out-of-state contractors an advantage over companies already in state.
They tried to deal with the problem immediately. But a bill that would have corrected the problem died in the state Senate last year.
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This year, however, the Assembly is considering a similar bill, and legislators this time say they expect it to pass.
”I don’t see where there’s going to be a problem,” said William Enos, D-Dist. 47, a member of the Senate Corporations Committee and a sponsor of the bill. The bill has recently been passed by the committee and was expected to move to the Senate floor by the end of last week. A companion bill is also being considered in the state House of Representatives.
The glitch legislators are trying to fix is a provision requiring Rhode Island telecommunications professionals to serve a three-year apprenticeship as a technician under a licensed contractor before they can sit for the state exam to become a contractor themselves. In the original law, however, out of state contractors would be required only to demonstrate that they have been performing as contractors for three consecutive years in order to take the exam.
Thus, Rhode Island technicians seeking to become contractors – or companies seeking to expand their services into the installation of telecommunications systems – are now at a disadvantage, since their out-of-state counterparts are required only to show that they are competent and have been doing the work.
The proposed law would extend the same privilege to Rhode Island companies, allowing those that can demonstrate competence and a history of installing systems to take the exam without going through the apprenticeship program. However, new technicians who have not established a work history must still complete the three-year requirement before taking the test.
The change will benefit technicians who missed out on their initial opportunities to become grandfathered when the original law was passed in 1994. It also will benefit companies looking to expand their services into the cabling business.
”Unfortunately the law has a piece in it that discriminates against Rhode Island companies,” said Jeff Deckman, chairman of the legislative subcommittee of the state’s seven-member board which develops the Telecommunications Systems Contractors examination – the test technicians must pass in order to become contractors in Rhode Island.
Rhode Island was the first state to pass a law that created a licensing system for telecommunications systems installers. But the history of the law goes back to 1989, when the Legislature, at the urging of the electricians’ lobby, passed a law making it illegal for anyone other than a licensed electrician to perform telecommunications cabling jobs.
Before the 1989 law, there were no restrictions on who could install telecommunications systems.
In response, the Rhode Island telecommunications industry sued the state, obtained a restraining order to prevent the law from being enforced, and then succeeded in convincing the Legislature to repeal the law in 1990. As a condition of the repeal a study group was formed, consisting of representatives from the two warring factions: electricians and telecommunications workers.
The group developed a system for licensing telecommunications systems installers that both sides could agree with, and in 1994 the Assembly passed the study group’s recommended bill establishing the licensing procedure.
The procedure is as follows. Someone seeking a career in telecommunications installation would typically begin by getting a job with a contractor and registering with the state Department of Labor and Training as an apprentice/trainee. Then, when the worker believes he or she is ready, he may take the state examination to become a ‘limited installer’ of telecommunications systems. The next step is the state test to become a technician, which the limited installer may take at any time.
The next step after technician is contractor. Here, the group decided that a technician needs at least three years experience to be qualified to become a contractor, and thus fashioned the law to require a three-year apprenticeship before Rhode Island technicians could take the state contractors’ examinations.
Because the law was created by members of both factions, tensions have now been eased between the two groups, Deckman said.
“There used to be battles between electricians and telecommunications people,” Deckman said. “But since this law was put in place there’s been peace in the valley.”
But along with the peace came a few problems. The first came with grandfathering. The state gave professionals in both industries who were already installing telecommunications systems six months to get grandfather licenses absolving them from the new state requirements.
Several workers, however, failed to come forward to become grandfathered. So, the state opened another grandfathering period in 1997.
Still, there remain a few workers out there who have been installing systems for a long time and have slipped through without becoming officially grandfathered. People who install systems illegally may be fined by the Telecommunications Systems Contractors, Technicians, and Installers Board, the seven-member board which also issues the state tests.
Therefore, the telecommunications board has recommended that the state pass a law that allows applicants for the Telecommunications Systems Contractor’s license to take the exam if they can show that they have been installing systems for the three years immediately prior to taking the test.
Though there are a few workers in the state that have failed to become grandfathered, the proposed law would principally benefit companies that are seeking to expand their services into cabling, Deckman said.
“Pretty much anybody who has been in the business is okay,” he said. “The companies who want to expand their product offering, those are the companies bumping up against the three-year waiting period.”
The Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. has endorsed the law, said David Croston, an account executive with the corporation’s science and technology group.
