If he was a contract worker wouldn’t he have to have the same qualifications as one of their employees?
You would think so. But I have seen specific cases where the credentials of contractors is not what it should be, so I have always thought it was a gray area that is wholly dependent on the company doing the contracting.
The end customer in many cases doesn’t know they are working with a contractor. That alone is proof to me they should have the same credentials, but...since it is often opaque to the end user...one never knows.