More pay, better career growth

A new committee will look at higher wages and better career progression for lift technicians, in a bid to attract more people to join the industry.

Senior Minister of State for National Development Desmond Lee said yesterday that the Lift and Escalator Sectoral Tripartite Committee will help to develop a training framework to ''increase the capacity and competency of the sector''. The committee will make its recommendations by the end of the year, Mr Lee added.

He was speaking to 108 Institute of Technical Education scholarship recipients and their families.

At the ceremony, 14 parties from the Government, unions and private sector also signed a memorandum of understanding to attract locals to join the sector through scholarship and sponsorship programmes. They also promised to work with industry associations and government agencies to offer attractive jobs and career development to their staff.

The dearth of lift technicians has come under the spotlight following a spate of lift breakdowns last year. Industry experts pointed to the insufficient number of staff, only 2,000, to maintain the 63,000 lifts and 6,000 escalators here. The Building and Construction Authority is aiming for 1,000 more technicians over the next three years. — THE STRAITS TIMES