CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 101

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                 , 2011

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1089

       S.D. 1

       H.D. 2

       C.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sirs:

 

     Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 1089, S.D. 1, H.D. 2, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DISLOCATED WORKERS,"

 

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

 

     The purpose of this measure is to authorize the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to exercise enforcement powers against an employer in a covered establishment that does not provide its employees and the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations sufficient written notification of a closing, divesture, partial closing, or relocation of the employer's covered establishment.

 

     Your Committee on Conference finds that, under current law, when an employer of a covered establishment does not provide sufficient written notification of a closing, divesture, partial closing, or relocation of the employer's covered establishment, an aggrieved worker can enforce the penalties provided in the law against the violating employer only by filing a claim in court, which subjects the worker to expenses and delays that ultimately serve as a disincentive to the worker to assert that worker's rights under the law.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations is in a far better position to enforce the notification law.

 

     Your Committee on Conference has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting the language stating that the authorization for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to enforce the dislocated employees shall be "[n]otwithstanding any law to the contrary" because that provision is overly broad;

 

     (2)  Making a conforming amendment to section 371-12, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to the powers and duties of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, to clarify that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations shall have the duty to enforce the provisions of section 394B-9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, regarding dislocated workers;

 

     (3)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2011; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1089, S.D. 1, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1089, S.D. 1, H.D. 2, C.D. 1.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

 

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

 

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

 

______________________________

KARL RHOADS, Co-Chair

 

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair

______________________________

ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Co-Chair

 

____________________________

MAILE SHIMABUKURO, Co-Chair

______________________________

GILBERT KEITH-AGARAN, Co-Chair

 

____________________________

DONNA MERCADO KIM, Co-Chair

______________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Co-Chair