Union says inspectors ill-trained

But Kevin Preston, attorney for the Service Employees International Union, said that inspectors have never cited an escalator owner for violating that part of the code, even though 69 escalators were found to be in violation statewide after the child’s death.

He said most inspectors did not even know that state rules forbid open spaces more than 5 inches wide alongside escalators, suggesting that the problem is an institutional lack of training.

“This isn’t a question of one employee who wasn’t paying attention,’’ Preston said at a public disciplinary hearing in Boston yesterday.

A Public Safety Department official rejected the union’s arguments, including the assertion that inspectors were not provided with enough code books. Beth D. McLaughlin, general counsel for the Department of Public Safety, pointed to nearly $16,000 spent on a few dozen copies of the Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators.

“The department does not expect that every inspector know every single code,’’ she said.

But McLaughlin added that they “should have an understanding of where their jurisdiction starts and stops.’’

Gatzunis announced May 4 that he plans to fire the two inspectors, Kevin Desautels and Christos Liatsis, who OK’d the faulty escalator in the Auburn Mall that had a 6 ¼-inch gap between the escalator handrail and a plexiglass balustrade that guards a one-story drop from a balcony.

The SEIU, Local 888, and the escalator inspectors have pushed back against the disciplinary actions this week. On Wednesday, a number of elevator inspectors — some facing punishment, some not — sent a letter to members of the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security calling for Gatzunis to resign.

“The commissioner’s recent behavior, coupled with systemic issues created by him, has created a lack of confidence in the commissioner and a fear of retribution for any inspector going out to run an inspection,’’ they wrote to the committee.