STAND. COM. REP. NO.2218

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 3078

S.D. 1

 

 

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. 3078 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LEAVES OF ABSENCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide that a written designation of beneficiary for earned and unpaid wages is void if the beneficiary predeceases the employee, if the employee and beneficiary divorce, if an unmarried employee subsequently marries, or if the employee enters into or terminates a reciprocal beneficiary relationship.

Your Committee received testimony in favor of this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development and the Honolulu County Department of Human Resources.

Your Committee finds that currently, an employee's written designation of beneficiary for the employee's earned and unpaid wages and lump sum vacation payment remains valid even if the employee divorces the named beneficiary or remarries. Although the City and County of Honolulu encourages employees to update their beneficiary forms, the forms are not always updated. This has led to situations in which an employee's current spouse must deal with not only the untimely death of the employee, but also with the stress of knowing that the employee's ex-spouse will receive the moneys because the written designation was never changed.

Your Committee has amended this measure by providing that a valid court order filed within ten calendar days of the employee's death shall take precedence if it requires the designation of a specific beneficiary for the benefits. Nonsubstantive, technical amendments have been made as well.

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. 3078, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3078, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

BOB NAKATA, Chair