Report Title:

Employment Practices

 

Description:

Prohibits employers from suspending, discharging, or discriminating against an employee for taking sick leave.

 


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

52

TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT


 

 

RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 


     SECTION 1.  Section 378-32, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

     "§378-32  Unlawful suspension, discharge, or discrimination.  It shall be unlawful for any employer to suspend, discharge, or discriminate against any of the employer's employees:

     (1)  Solely because the employer was summoned as a garnishee in a cause where the employee is the debtor or because the employee has filed a petition in proceedings for a wage earner plan under Chapter XIII of the Bankruptcy Act; [or]

     (2)  Solely because the employee has suffered a work injury which arose out of and in the course of the employee's employment with the employer and which is compensable under chapter 386 unless the employee is no longer capable of performing the employee's work as a result of the work injury and the employer has no other available work which the employee is capable of performing.  Any employee who is discharged because of the work injury shall be given first preference of reemployment by the employer in any position which the employee is capable of performing and which becomes available after the discharge and during the period thereafter until the employee secures new employment.  This paragraph shall not apply to any employer in whose employment there are less than three employees at the time of the work injury or who is a party to a collective bargaining agreement which prevents the continued employment or reemployment of the injured employee; [or]

     (3)  Because the employee testified or was subpoenaed to testify in a proceeding under this part[.]; or

     (4)  Because the employee has used any sick leave provided by the employer, unless the use of sick leave was fraudulent or otherwise invalid.  A discriminatory act against the employee shall include but not be limited to an employer's characterizing the leave as an absence under the employer's attendance policy."

     SECTION 2.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

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