Report Title:

Labor

 

Description:

Requires employers to provide meal breaks after 5 hours of work.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

35

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO MEAL BREAKS.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that although Act 172, Session Laws of Hawaii 1999, amended the law to make it illegal for an employer to prohibit an employee from expressing breastmilk during any meal period or other break period required by law, neither state nor federal wage and hour laws currently require employers to provide employees over the age of sixteen any meal period or rest break no matter how many consecutive hours they may be required to work. Employees who must work a full day or eight-hour shift or more regardless of age or sex should not be denied a reasonable period of time to rest and consume a meal as is commonly required by other states such as California, Oregon, and Washington.

The purpose of this Act is to require that employees working more than five consecutive hours be provided with at least a half hour rest or meal period or its equivalent in overtime pay.

SECTION 2. Chapter 387, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§387- Meal breaks. No employee shall be required to work more than five hours continuously without an interval of at least thirty consecutive minutes for a rest or meal period, unless a collective bargaining agreement expressly provides the employee a choice between accepting the break or overtime pay for work performed during the break."

SECTION 3. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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