STAND. COM. REP. 2927

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: H.B. No. 1919

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1919, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require adjustment to compensation and benefit packages for employees who are excluded from civil service to be at least equal to those provided under collective bargaining agreements within the employer's jurisdiction.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Managerial and Confidential Employees Chapter of the Hawaii Government Employees Association and forty-eight private citizens.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Resources Development.

Your Committee finds that Act 253, Session Laws of Hawaii 2000, amended the law as it relates to salary increases and other cost adjustments for excluded civil service employees to allow for variable adjustments based upon performance. Accordingly, such adjustments are permitted to be lower than adjustments for those covered under a collective bargaining agreement, a practice which was previously disallowed.

Your Committee finds that a majority of the employees that are excluded from collective bargaining are career civil servants who have competed for their positions in the same manner as other public employees. Your Committee further finds that these employees have spent their entire careers gaining invaluable knowledge and the necessary skills required to efficiently and effectively run the state programs that provide critical services to our community. Additionally, irrespective of changes in the administration, these employees have managed to successfully rise through the ranks and continue to dutifully perform their managerial duties.

Therefore, your Committee determines that, in the interest of fairness and equity, it is necessary to adequately compensate these excluded employees at a level which is at least equal to their counterparts who are covered by collective bargaining.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1919, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair