An extraordinary general meeting of the Korea Elevator Maintenance Association (Chairman Seo Gil-soo, hereinafter referred to as the Association) was held at the Cheonan Sangrok Resort in Chungnam, South Korea, on the 9th and 10th of last month.

The meeting was held for the first time since the founding meeting of the association in October last year, and was organized to consolidate and actively respond to the opinions of 160 members of the association and the three recently proposed amendments to the Elevator Facility Safety Management Act.

First of all, the materials submitted by the Safety Improvement Division of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety showed a stance against the unfairness of the 'repair subcontracting prohibition clause'. They pointed out that the regulation on the scope of the total contract amount of no more than 50/100th of the total contract amount ignores the principles of the market economy, and the prohibition on batch subcontracting means that partial subcontracting that separates safety inspection and fault repair is not possible due to the management characteristics of the elevator repair business.

"The restriction on subcontracting elevator maintenance is a measure to strengthen regulations, which is contrary to the development of the elevator industry and the well-operated elevator safety management system," said Seo Gil-soo. "On the contrary, the nature of maintenance contractors is that they receive technical training, material supply, management operation system support, and management supervision from the manufacturer, so they are more preferred by customers in terms of safety management than general small contractors."

He added, "In particular, the clause of scope below 50th of 100th of the total contract amount is the same as saying not to subcontract. It is correct to adjust it to 90th of 100th or less considering the characteristics of elevators."

In addition, the introduction of the lowest subscription bid system for repair contracts should be applied to the current lowest bid evaluation system of the Public Procurement Service to ensure that appropriate contracts are awarded.

The association said that it recommended this to MOLIT and received a reply stating that 'if necessary in apartment houses, it can be done with a limited competition and nomination competition system'. In addition, Representative Lee Myung-soo expressed that the establishment of the Elevator Safety Corporation for the sole benefit of certain organizations and the renaming of the 'elevator repair business' to 'elevator maintenance business' are unfair.

Mr. Seo said, "Major industries such as nuclear power, steel, shipbuilding, etc. are also well managed without separate industrial complexes. Furthermore, even in developed countries, there are no examples of establishing a complex for elevators. Nevertheless, if you want to promote an industrial park, it is right to exclude the inspection business and play the role of an elevator industry development organization that supports the elevator industry," said Mr. Kim.

"The elevator maintenance industry is a technology-intensive service business, not just management. However, if the name is changed to elevator maintenance, it will lead to terminological confusion and customers may misunderstand it as simple management."

Finally, in response to Representative Baek Won-woo's proposal to monopolize elevator completion inspection management and conduct design inspections, Seo said, "Since elevators are facilities where completion inspections at the installation stage are of utmost importance, the government has switched to the current system of operating a limited number of diversified inspection agencies that maintain independence, which has led to a great improvement in the elevator inspection system, and there have been no problems in carrying out inspection work to date. Under these circumstances, the insistence that a single agency should conduct exclusive inspections will only hinder the development of the inspection business and increase the self-righteousness and arrogance of one agency."

The conservative association has sent a statement to the National Assembly and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and is determined to fight to the end to defeat this legislative proposal.

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However, the general meeting was somewhat disappointing, as it ended with the conservative association explaining its overall position rather than seeking the opinions of its members.

On the other hand, the Conservative Association, which was founded in October last year as a partnership of three major elevator companies (Otis, Hyundai, and Thyssen), aims to unite its members by organizing and operating four teams, consisting of the metropolitan area, the central region, Yeongnam, and Honam, instead of the three teams it previously operated.