STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1335

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1497

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 1497, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require:

 

     (1)  Client companies of a professional employer organization to report and update their physical address and North American Industry Classification System code to the professional employer organization;

 

     (2)  Employers to keep a record of the physical addresses of the employer and the North American Industry Classification System code applicable to the employer; and

 

     (3)  Professional employer organizations to provide the physical address, North American Industry Classification System code, and number of covered employees of each client company to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from ALTRES, Inc.

 

     Your Committee finds that federal funding levels for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (Department) are in jeopardy because the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics ties funding to the number of employing units reported and an increasing number of employers are not responding to surveys unless required to do so.  Your Committee further finds that existing Hawaii law is limited regarding the amount of information required to be collected.  The growth of professional employer organizations in the State has also affected the quality of data compiled and reported by the Department's Division of Research and Statistics.

 

     Your Committee additionally finds that this measure allows the Department to gather information necessary for preparing accurate industrial and geographical summaries of economic conditions within the State.  The additional information collected under this measure will greatly improve the data that the Division of Research and Statistics provides to other state agencies, many of which depend on federal funding.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by clarifying that an employer, regardless of whether the employer contracts with a professional employer organization, is required to keep a record of the physical addresses of the employer and the North American Industry Classification System code applicable to the employer.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1497, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1497, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

 

 

________________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair