HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1930

TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 

 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

rELATING TO assistance for DISPLACED WORKERS.

 

 

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

 


     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that a college tuition discount, either partial or full, is needed for displaced, dislocated workers in Hawaii and that there is a need to protect employees of unexpected and sudden mass layoffs or termination resulting from a layoff.

     The legislature further finds that a tuition relief package could provide an incentive to displaced workers to attend community college to retrain, and thus give displaced workers the tools they need to get back to work.

     There is precedent for this concept.  In 2007, the University of Hawaii community colleges, in cooperation with the State's workforce investment board, created a special education and training fund targeting displaced workers from Aloha Airlines, ATA Airlines, Molokai Ranch, NCL America, and Weyerhaeuser Corporation.  This fund provided a one-time only fifty per cent discount on the cost of tuition, up to a maximum of $500 per eligible laid-off employee, for those who were inclined to begin or resume a college education.  The University of Hawaii community colleges pledged $70,000 from its rapid response fund, created in 2007 by the legislature.  The discounted education opportunities were set to expire on June 20, 2009 and were for eligible participants in the county where one of the seven University of Hawaii community colleges deliver courses.  Similarly, the State of Washington also created a dislocated worker program to provide retraining for a new job or career.  Washington's program includes tuition assistance, financial aid, and career planning.

     The purpose of this Act is to re-establish a displaced worker education and training program, based on what the legislature established in 2007, by requiring the University of Hawaii community colleges and the State's workforce investment board to resume its special education and training fund targeting displaced workers.

     SECTION 2.  The University of Hawaii community colleges shall re-establish its skilled worker and business development center to develop curriculum to assist businesses and nonprofit organizations retrain and crosstrain dislocated workers to adapt to the economic downturn and new technology.  The skilled worker and business development center may be modeled after the Pacific center for advanced technology training, which is a not-for-profit consortium of the University of Hawaii community colleges.  For the purposes of this Act, "displaced worker" means an individual who has been terminated as a result of a mass layoff or plant closure.

(a) The skilled worker and business development center shall provide workforce development programs, including:

(1) Facilitated self-help courses that work with

employees to reassess skill sets, obtain additional

training, and consider new fields of work following a layoff or loss of employment for other reason;

(2) Affordable re-training and cross-training programs

to assist specific small business and nonprofit

organizations that are in the process of

reorganizing their business plan or structure;

(3) Specialized training courses to assist workers in

adapting to workplace changes, provided that the

necessity of the courses shall be supported by

empirical and statistical data; and

(4) Other permissible program services pursuant to the

Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933.

(b) In addition to providing workforce development, the

skilled worker and business development center shall include a

two-fold counseling component providing:

(1) Assistance to businesses and nonprofit organizations

that face difficult economic times or changes in their industry; and

(2) Occupational and career counseling for displaced

workers or other individuals.

(c) There is re-established an advisory board for the

skilled worker and business development center, which shall include representatives from the:

(1) University of Hawaii community college system;

(2) Seven community college campuses;

(3) Department of education;

(4) County workforce investment boards;

(5) Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations;

(6) Hawai'i Community Foundation ;

(7) Hawaii Business Roundtable Incorporated;

(8) Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii;

(9) Small Business Administration; and

(10) United States armed forces in Hawaii.

(d) The skilled worker and business development center

shall submit a report to the legislature no later than twenty

days prior to the convening of the 2017 regular session setting forth, at minimum, the progress achieved regarding the

establishment and start-up of the skilled worker and business

development center; the development plan for the skilled worker and business development center; funding options,

recommendations, and requirements for the skilled worker and

business development center and the specific programs thereunder at the various community colleges.  Funding options shall include funds appropriated pursuant to section 383-123(b), Hawaii Revised Statutes, other state funds, private funds, federal grants, and self-generating income of the University of Hawaii.

(e) Thereafter, the skilled worker and business development

center shall submit an annual report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of each regular session detailing the training and counseling programs, the numbers of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals participating in the center programs, and the usage of other available funds and other moneys from other sources used for the skilled worker and business development center.

SECTION 3.  There is appropriated out of the

unemployment trust fund from moneys deposited pursuant to

section 383-123(b), Hawaii Revised Statutes, the sum of

$     , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2016-2017 to assist in the establishment and start-up of the skilled worker and business development center and the development of its skills-based program, including curriculum design and counseling services; provided, however, that

$      shall be provided to each community college of the University of Hawaii system to implement skills-based programs deemed appropriate by each community college consistent with the skilled worker and business development center.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department

of labor and industrial relations for the purposes of this Act; provided that the funds shall be expended in conjunction with the University of Hawaii through an appropriate fund.

To the extent that moneys appropriated pursuant to

subsection (a) are not permitted to be used to effectuate this

Act, the University of Hawaii may also expend moneys previously appropriated to it by the legislature and additional revenues generated.

SECTION 4. If any part of this Act is found to be in

conflict with federal requirements that are a prescribed

condition for the allocation of federal funds to the State, the conflicting part of this Act is inoperative solely to the extent of the conflict and with respect to the agencies directly affected, and this finding does not affect the operation of the remainder of this Act in its application to the agencies concerned.

     SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2016.

 

INTRODUCED BY:

_____________________________

 

 

 

_____________________________


 

 

 


Report Title:

Displaced Workers; Education and Training Program.

 

Description:

Re-establishes the State's displaced worker education and training program, to assist displaced workers who have been terminated as a result of a mass layoff or plant closure.

 

 

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