Report Title:

Sick Leave; Ill Family Members

Description:

Requires private employers who provide sick leave to permit employees to use sick leave to care for the employee's child, spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, or parent with a serious health condition.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

125

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2003

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to sick leave for employees in the private sector.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that family responsibilities of Hawaii workers can impact upon their workplace responsibilities. For many individuals, maintaining a balance between the two responsibilities is very challenging.

Over the last twenty-five years, women have entered the work force in record numbers, making up 59.1 per cent of Hawaii's workforce in 2000. Hawaii also has a very high rate of two wage earner families, resulting in there being no one at home to care for sick children, spouses, or aging parents--a role historically assumed by women.

State and federal family leave laws were enacted to help workers balance the sometimes conflicting demands of family and the workplace, attempting to address both employee and employer concerns. While both Hawaii's family leave law, codified in chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 do, in fact, provide job protection for employees who take leave to care for family members with a serious health condition or for other acceptable family leave purposes, both laws guarantee only unpaid leave. As a result, employees often face a difficult dilemma when a family member becomes seriously ill.

For example, the American Cancer Society estimates that four thousand seven hundred new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in Hawaii in 2002, not counting basal and squamous cell skin cancers and in situ carcinomas. Although treatment options vary depending on the stage and type of cancer, it is estimated that an average of six months to one year is required to address a major medical illness. Other serious conditions that may require an employee to take family medical leave to care for an ill family member include arthritis, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and physical inactivity and obesity.

Many workers simply cannot afford to take unpaid family leave and lose their income, particularly in Hawaii where the cost of living is so high. The lack of wage replacement is particularly critical when the "family member with a serious health condition" is the family's primary wage earner at the peak of his or her earning capacity, most likely the spouse or reciprocal beneficiary of the employee who needs to take family leave. In such a case, unpaid family medical leave causes a second interruption in family income.

The legislature further finds that the need for paid family leave for an employee to care for a family member with a serious health condition is perhaps more important in Hawaii than in any other state. We have the longest life expectancy in the nation, a high rate of two wage earner families, and a workforce that is nearly sixty per cent female. There is no one at home to care for sick family members and Hawaii's high cost of living makes it difficult to take unpaid family leave.

The purpose of this Act is to direct private employers subject to Hawaii's family leave law, chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes, who provide sick leave to their employees, to permit employees to use their personal sick leave to care for designated family members with a serious health condition.

SECTION 2. Section 398-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) An employee or employer may elect to substitute any of the employee's accrued paid leaves such as sick, vacation, personal, or family leave for any part of the four-week period in subsection (a); provided that [an employer or employee may not substitute an employee's accrued sick leave in any situation under this chapter unless:

(1) Sick leave is normally granted for such purposes by an employer's policy or practice; or

(2) Upon mutual agreement by the employer and the employee.]:

(1) An employer who provides sick leave for employees shall permit an employee to use the employee's sick leave to care for the employee's child, spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, or parent with a serious health condition; and

(2) This subsection shall not decrease the amount of unpaid family leave to which an employee is entitled."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2003.

INTRODUCED BY:

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