STAND. COM. REP. 566

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1593

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 1593 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to reduce the possibility of strikes by providing that an individual may collect unemployment benefits if prior to or during a work stoppage, it is shown that the employer has rejected a bona fide offer from the labor organization to have the dispute submitted to binding arbitration.

Unity House, Inc., ILWU Local 142, and several individuals testified in support of this bill. The Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations opposed this bill.

This bill places the burden on labor organizations to take disputes that may lead to potential strikes to the employer and submit to binding arbitration. If the labor organization does not do this, it jeopardizes the employees' rights to collect unemployment benefits during a work stoppage.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050 to facilitate further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for consistency and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor and Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1593, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1593,

H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor and Public Employment,

 

____________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair