STAND. COM. REP. NO. 89

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 546

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 546 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FAMILY LEAVE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow an employee with a family member in the United States Armed Forces who is on active duty or notified of a call to active duty, to use family leave for certain activities for which an employee may take military family leave under federal law.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, State Office of Veterans' Services, Oahu Veterans Council, and theStrategist.

 

     Your Committee finds that the United States asks its service members to be ready to respond to the nation's needs quickly, and there are many processes that must be accomplished prior to departure, including financial arrangements and powers of attorney.  This measure ensures that service members' families can make all arrangements necessary when the service member is asked to serve the United States.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by providing employers with a mechanism to certify the validity of requests for military family leave.

 

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 546, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 546, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

 

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair