STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1604

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1503

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1503, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to strengthen protections for dislocated workers by amending Hawaii's Dislocated Workers Law to provide a sixty-day notice to employees who become dislocated due to a sale, transfer, merger, and other business transaction.

 

     The measure requires an employer to pay a civil penalty of $500 for each day of the violation for failing to provide the required notice.

 

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the ILWU Local 142 and the Hawaii State AFL-CIO.  Opposing testimony was received from the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the Society for Human Resource Management – Hawaii Chapter (SHRM), the Retail Merchants of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations provided comments.

 

The Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association expressed concerns that this measure will include a sale of an establishment that does not affect the status of the employees.  Language, agreed upon by the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association and the ILWU Local 142, has been added in Section 2 of this bill and discussed in the following paragraph in section (2)(a). 

 

Your Commitee has amended this bill by:

 

(1)  Amending the definition of "divestiture" to limit the scope of the measure to only cover the types of business transactions that cause the employee to become a dislocated worker.

 

(2)  Ameding Section 394B-9, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) by:

 

(A)  Adding a new section (c) to exempt a covered establishment which is actively seeking a buyer for a sale, transfer, or merger until such time the sale, transfer, or merger results in a divestiture.  If the transaction results in a divestiture then the covered establishment shall meet the requirements of this chapter; and

 

(B)  Adding language to require that the money collected from the civil penalty be deposited in the Employment and Training Fund of section 383-128, HRS.

 

(3)  Amending the effective date to upon its approval.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1503, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1503, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair