Then their employers could have been hit with severe fines. Any electrical work carried out by an unlicensed electrician that results in a fire for example would not be covered by insurance, same here as there. I imagine that they were likely hired on a larger job where there were licensed electricians who could inspect their work for example and they could be hidden in the record books as some basic maintenance personnel, there's always that option of course, but if you get caught, and your work leads to damage/personal injury you can face severe fines and even jail time.

Here's a good article

http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id49354/--electricians-concerne...

Note in the article BC = British Columbia