HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

604

TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2013

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to part-time teachers.

 

 

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

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the long-standing dispute between the department of education and Hawaii's part-time teachers has been judicially resolved.  In Garner v. DOE (Civil No. 03-1-000305) and Kliternick v. Hamamoto (Civil No. 05-1-0031-01), the intermediate court of appeals affirmed Judge Karen Ahn's 2005 decision that the department of education failed to pay substitute teachers the per diem salary based upon a 1996 formula enacted by the legislature.  That same misconduct by the department of education also deprived part-time teachers of full pay.

     Since 2005, the legislature provided annual and temporary relief by providing interim pay adjustments for the benefit of part-time teachers while the pay dispute was being litigated in the courts.  The interim pay adjustments represented only a fraction of the pay the part-time teachers would have received under the formula adopted in 1996 if it had been properly implemented and the compensation to substitute teachers and part-time teachers tracked the pay given to entry level class II teachers.

     In Act 263, Session Laws of Hawaii 2006, the conferees of the house of representatives and senate, in their committee report (conference committee report no. 216-06), urged the legislature to make appropriate adjustments, including retroactive pay adjustments, to part-time teacher pay in accord with the appellate court's final ruling.  When the legislature set a formula for part-time teachers that was comparable to wage adjustments for regular teachers (Act 187, Session Laws of Hawaii 2008), house of representatives and senate conferees reaffirmed, in conference committee report no. 110-08, that pay adjustments for part-time teachers in 2005 and 2006 were only interim rates set by the legislature, pending the resolution of litigation.

     In addition, in Kawashima v. DOE (Civil No. 06-1-0244-02), a class action suit brought by part-time teachers, the court held that the department of education violated the applicable law and breached its contracts with the part-time teachers by failing to pay the correct hourly rate required by their contracts with the department of education and regulation 5203 of the board of education school code.  On August 10, 2011, the defendants in Kawashima v. DOE filed a motion for reconsideration of the order granting plaintiff Diane Kawashima's motion for summary judgment.  The motion was denied by the court because the court's original ruling was reaffirmed.

     Now that the intermediate court of appeals has ruled, the legislature finds that it is only fair and appropriate to provide retroactive pay adjustments to part-time teachers for the period between November 2000 and June 2005.

     The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to provide retroactive pay adjustments to part-time teachers for the period between November 2000 and June 2005, during which only interim partial pay adjustments were made by statute.

     SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $           or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2013-2014 for the purpose of compensating part-time teachers for the shortfall in their pay during the period between November 2000 and June 2005.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of education for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2013.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

 

 


 


 

Report Title:

Part-time Teachers; Compensation; Appropriation

 

Description:

Appropriates funds for court-ordered retroactive pay for part-time teachers.

 

 

 

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