STAND. COM. REP. NO.2237

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2118

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2118 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require successor employers to retain incumbent employees upon the divestiture, sale, or acquisition of a business.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, the Hawaii State AFL-CIO, ILWU Local 142, and numerous private citizens who were dislocated from their former positions at the Hawaiian Waikiki Beach Hotel when the property was acquired by a new owner. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and the Libertarian Party of Hawaii opposed passage of the measure.

Your Committee finds that if a successor employer acquires a business and is intent upon continuing it, the successor employer should retain the incumbent workers. Such a requirement would minimize the disruption caused by dislocation to workers who, through no fault of their own, suffer simply due to the transfer of ownership of a business.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2118 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor,

____________________________

BOB NAKATA, Chair