STAND. COM. REP. NO.3313

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.C.R. No. 180

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 180 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING A LEGISLATIVE AUDIT OF THE ALLEGED FIDUCIARY VIOLATION BY THE STATE OF HAWAII, EMPLOYEES RETIREMENT SYSTEM TRUSTEES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request a legislative audit of the alleged fiduciary violation of the Employees' Retirement System's Board of Trustees.

Your Committee has amended the measure by deleting its contents and inserting therefor, provisions that request the Legislative Reference Bureau to compare legislative proposals to allow employees to take sick leave to care for their families with Hawaii's Family Leave Law, as codified in chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee has also amended the title to reflect the measure's new purpose.

Testimony in support of the amended measure was received from the ILWU Local 142 and a private citizen. The Legislative Reference Bureau submitted comments.

Your Committee finds that Hawaii has a high percentage of two-wage earner families and a particularly high number of these families include school-age children. Parents in these families have a difficult time balancing their schedules even when family members are well.

When a parent, child, spouse, or reciprocal beneficiary becomes seriously ill, employees often use vacation leave to care for these individuals. Unfortunately, some employers do not allow employees to take their own sick leave to attend to sick family members.

To address this issue, an alternative was established in Hawaii in 1991 and codified as Chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which allowed employees to take family leave. Hawaii's Family Leave Law entitles an employee to a total of four weeks of family leave during any calendar year upon the birth or adoption of a child or to care for the employee's child, spouse, reciprocal beneficiary, or parent with a serious health condition.

Your Committee further finds that measures have been introduced during the Regular Session of 2002 to allow employees to take sick leave to care for their families. Your Committee believes that in order to make informed decisions on this issue, more information and a comprehensive evaluation of the proposals are necessary.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 180, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 180, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

BOB NAKATA, Chair