An elevator workers union has blamed the maintenance-contract bidding system for last month's elevator crash in a public housing estate caused by broken suspension cables.

The Electrical & Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) has inspected 36 lifts around the same age as the one that fell in the housing estate, and they are all certified to be safe. The department will also inspect the 500 lifts of the same model across the city within 10 days.

The trade union pointed out that under "the lowest bidder wins" system, the winner uses less manpower and non-original parts to cut costs.

On the night of Oct 25, a lift at Shin Nga House, Fu Shin Estate, in Tai Po district, suddenly plunged to the ground from the 14th floor. After inspection, the EMSD found that seven of the eight suspension cables had broken.

Tse Kam-wa, chairman of the Hong Kong General Union of Lift and Escalator Employees, said that the maintenance companies will, after winning the contracts at very low prices, save money by cutting the size of the service team from two to one. Besides, technicians are assigned as many as eight to 10 jobs daily, giving them very little time for thorough inspections.

"That is not enough safeguard for the residents and the staff," he said.

To reflect their concerns, they will meet with Secretary for Development Carrie Lam tomorrow. They will call for a statutory requirement that technicians must work in pairs and ask the government to monitor the companies on the working hours and the number of jobs that technicians should handle per day.

(HK Edition 11/06/2008 page1)