Here in the US, and in particular Michigan, the problem is twofold:

First, an 'Engineer' is a licensed legal classification, and the
engineer responsible for work that ultimately goes into consumers hands
is personally liable for a variety of things if the product's failure
and resulting injury or death is due to poor engineering.  This is for a
specific set of applications, though, where such an engineer's license
is required.

If a car accident happened, and the victim claimed faulty lights, and a
faulty light was found then they could sue not only the city, and the
subcontractor who did the work, but also the individual who performed
the work (or the engineer who inspected and signed off on the work).  If
the engineer was shown to have followed all the regulations and rules
then they are not liable, but one has to keep a meticulous paper trail
to avoid such problems.  I don't know how common this kind of lawsuit
is...  I'm not a state licensed engineer, and I don't do the type of
work that requires such a license.

The second aspect is that, at least in Michigan, unions play a major
role in who can do what for various organizations and agencies.  When I
worked for a company doing computer contracting for Ford we had many
days sitting around the Ford campus waiting for our computer equipment
to be delivered - from the loading dock in the building to the area we
were working.  We could look at the boxes, but we couldn't move them
because the unions forced a contract which provides that all 'package
movement' was to be handled by union workers.

The situation is similar in large conference centers where union laber
was required to add, for instance, a 10 foot section of phone cord for a
friend's display.  Woe betide the impatient person who climbs a short
ladder and hooks up their own drop!  The unions would then disconnect
it, and refuse to connect it until they 'could find the time' - usually
a day or two after the show starts.

There are unions for everything here, so I could easily see a union
requiring a certian certification for a certian part of a job - such as
fixing bad LED clusters on traffic lights.  Not so common elsewhere in
the USA.

-Adam

cdb wrote:

>I just applied for a temporary job repairing LED traffic light
>clusters and boards.
>
>The job agency has informed me that finding component faults and
>soldering is a job for a qualified electrician and has nothing to do
>with electronics.
>
>So I can only assume that to test the repairs connections to single
>or 3 phase is required - or the people advertising the job actually
>haven't the faintest idea what it is they are advertising.
>
>You can tell they expected an electrician I suppose, the hourly rate
>was A$22.00 and many places for electronics repair work pay a max of
>A$15.00.
>
>Siemens hearing aids pay a paltry A$11.50 per hour.
>
>Colin
>--
>cdb, cdb@barnard.name on 31/03/2002
>
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