Elevators maintained in a hurry to reduce the bill, insufficient inspections and outdated regulations are all elements that raise fears for the safety of these devices borrowed daily by thousands of Quebecers. Mechanics are sounding the alarm, while the Régie du bâtiment du Québec promises to correct the situation.
Since 2016, local 89 of the International Union of Elevator Builders, which represents, among other things, industrial workers in the greater Montreal area, has lost three of its members, who died while carrying out the maintenance of an elevator or related device. However, the union had not recorded any deaths in similar circumstances among its members during the previous 15 years, between 2001 and 2016, underlines to the Duty business agent Roger Harpin, met in his office in LaSalle.
“It’s huge,” said the man, who has 40 years of experience as an elevator mechanic, about these three deaths in seven years.
Two of the deaths in question were the subject of investigation reports by the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST). It reports shortcomings in the safety of the equipment and in the working conditions of the deceased elevator mechanics. They are Éric Martel, who died after his left arm was crushed while maintaining a moving sidewalk at the University of Montreal in 2016, and Simon Viel, deceased while performing maintenance on an elevator in a building in the Sud-Ouest borough in 2018.
Another elevator mechanic lost his life after falling from the ninth to the first floor in an elevator shaft at the CHU Sainte-Justine on October 26, while carrying out maintenance work. However, the CNESST report on this death has not yet been published.
In interview at Duty, elevator mechanics who work in different regions of Quebec complain that they have less and less time to inspect and maintain these devices, a situation they attribute to the desire of the companies that employ them to limit their costs as much as possible. “It’s the war of bidders to cut at the lowest possible price” in maintenance contracts for elevators in hospitals, schools and other buildings, notes Roger Harpin.
Workers then find themselves forced to cut corners in order to be able to visit as many elevators as their employer requires without exceeding the budget he has allocated for this work. “I know elevator mechanics who service 250 elevators a month,” says Harpin.
Lack of time
These workers are thus forced to carry out sometimes complex maintenance work in a short time. “Often, I’ll only have half an hour to go to the location, meet the client, pick up the keys, do the inspection requested [sur un ascenseur] and leave. But just to do the work, we would need an hour,” explains a mechanic who works in Estrie. He requested anonymity for fear of reprisals from his employer, who does not allow him to speak to the media.
“I have already been asked to make in and out says elevator mechanic Lance Yates, who has over 25 years of experience. The latter, who works mainly in Montreal, says he has already been called by his employer to enter buildings to sign a register and thus indicate that he has inspected an elevator without this being really the case. “Mechanics have been asking for more time for maintenance for a long time, but companies [d’ascenseurs] don’t let it happen” in order to limit their expenses, deplores Mr. Yates.
By email, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) mentions that the maintenance it requires for this type of device must include “the inspection, examination and testing of all parts and functions of the lift”. “Each step must be respected so that the interview is compliant. It is up to the contractor hired by the owner of an elevator to plan the work properly in order to meet all the requirements,” adds the organization.
Joined by The duty, Otis and Kone, two of the largest elevator construction and repair companies in the world, briefly answered our questions by email. “There is nothing more important to Otis than the safety of our colleagues, our customers and the people who rely on our products and services every day,” assured the company, which says it has implemented several measures. to protect its employees and contractors.
“We work closely with our customers to reduce security risks and raise awareness through security training and education,” says Kone, which maintains that all of its employees “have the ability to stop work when there is a risk to continue, to seek help and take the necessary steps to continue work safely”.
Towards a new regulation
Several union representatives contacted by The duty for their part, urge the RBQ to inspect more elevators in the province in order to encourage the companies responsible for maintaining them to adopt better practices. They also deplore that Quebec currently applies a safety code for elevators and goods lifts which dates from 2007, while Ontario is based on standards updated in 2019. “We must not forget that this does not are not cardboard boxes that we transport, it’s the public”, launches Roger Harpin.
However, the RBQ intends to table a draft revision of the regulations this year in order to update the construction and safety codes applied to elevators and other lifting devices in Quebec.
These regulatory changes aim in particular to create a maintenance control program whose objective will be to maintain the elevators “in good working order” and thus “to guarantee a better level of safety for users”, adds the government agency by email. Each device will have to be the subject of a separate control program which will “specify the examinations, tests, cleaning, lubrication and adjustments to the relevant components at regular intervals”, specifies the RBQ.
The latter indicates that its 11 specialized inspectors carry out an average of 820 inspections per year on elevators in Quebec. A number that could increase if the Government of Quebec goes ahead by applying mandatory monitoring of construction sites, as demanded by many players in the construction industry. “Consequently, if an elevator is there, it will have to undergo a preliminary inspection before its delivery,” notes the RBQ.
“It should also be noted that in the event of a serious breach, the RBQ has the power to withdraw the operating licenses of offending contractors,” Quebec Labor Minister Jean Boulet said by email.