STAND. COM. REP. NO.1340

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 248

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 248, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SMOKING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY PUBLIC EMPLOYEES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to prohibit any person from smoking tobacco products on school property, and at all school-sponsored events, except during a school function in an enclosed room that is not located on school premises and is not occupied by a student while the person is smoking.

This measure also excludes the subject of smoking in public schools from collective bargaining negotiations.

The Department of Human Resources Development, the Department of Health, the Department of Education, the Hawaii State PTSA, the Tobacco Prevention and Control Advisory Board, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the Hawaii Medical Association, Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, the University of Hawaii Student Group Against Tobacco, Lamalama Ka`ili Community Health Services, Hawaii Intergenerational Network, and forty-three individuals submitted testimony in support of this measure.

The United Public Workers (UPW) submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

Your Committees find that many students see their teachers and other adults smoking on school grounds and at school functions. This exposure sets a negative example that is frequently imitated by school children. The detrimental effects of second-hand smoke also pose a danger to the health and well being of the students as well as other school staff. Your Committees determine that our keiki deserve a safe and healthy smoke-free environment within which to be educated.

Additionally, your Committees recognize that public employees retain certain rights which must be protected. In the past, the removal of these rights has resulted in arbitration proceedings and review by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board. In a 1995 ruling against the Department of Education (DOE), the Arbitrator opined that if DOE wanted to institute a smoke-free school environment, it must engage in good faith negotiations with the union.

Your Committees determine that negotiations have recently ensued between DOE and UPW, a situation that has not occurred since the aforementioned arbitration award. Your Committees believe, based upon representations of the interested parties, that the negotiations will result in a timely resolution which will afford the union with the opportunity to protect and negotiate the rights of its employees, as well as provide a smoke-free school environment for our keiki.

Your Committees support the timely resolution of this matter and do not wish to further subject our keiki to the ill-effects of smoking. Therefore, your Committees believe that this measure should continue forward so that it may be utilized in the event that the DOE and UPW are unable to reach a resolution on the issue prior to the end of this legislative session. However, your Committees determine that the parties should be allowed to continue to negotiate and work towards resolution under collective bargaining and have amended the measure accordingly, including a delay in the effective date of the measure.

Your Committees have amended this measure as follows:

(1) By removing the language in Section 2 which indicates that the prohibition on smoking is not subject to collective bargaining negotiations pursuant to section 89-9(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(2) By removing the amendment to section 89-9(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes, which excluded the subject of smoking in public schools from collective bargaining negotiations;

(3) By changing the effective date of the Act to July 1, 2054; and

(4) By making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 248, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 248, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Labor and Education,

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair