STAND. COM. REP. NO.3542

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: H.B. No. 682

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 682 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONTESTS OF OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH MATTERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to transfer the responsibility to hear appeals from the decisions of the Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health division from the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board to the Hawaii Labor Relations Board.

Currently, the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board has jurisdiction over both occupational safety and health (OSHA) cases as well as workers' compensation appeals, with a backlog of several hundred workers' compensation cases. A recent pilot program allowed the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to serve as hearings officers for a number of OSHA cases. Because the Hawaii Labor Relations Board has no backlog of its prohibited practices cases, fifty-four OSHA cases were transferred from the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board to the Hawaii Labor Relations Board and scheduled for timely consideration. Five decisions have been issued, and more than forty cases have been settled.

Your Committee finds that transferring OSHA appeals from the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board to the Hawaii Labor Relations Board will result in prompt disposition of OSHA cases, allowing the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board to concentrate on timely adjudication of workers' compensation claims.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 682, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair