STAND. COM. REP. NO. 478

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1889

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1889 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO APPRENTICESHIPS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the standards for apprenticeship agreements to provide for assurances of qualified training personnel, adequate job supervision, and the requisite licenses.

This measure also requires the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations to establish an apprenticeship council whose purpose shall be to promote and approve apprenticeship programs.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades, Drywall Tapers, Finishers and Allied Workers Local Union 1944, AFL-CIO.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc., and Building Industry Association of Hawaii.

Your Committees find that under the current law, the Director of DLIR has the discretion to convene an apprenticeship council which, if established, serves in only an advisory capacity. Your Committees determine that although the Director should have the discretion of determining the composition of an apprenticeship council, the law should mandate the establishment of an apprenticeship council whose purpose should be more than advisory, but instead to promote and approve of apprenticeship programs. Furthermore, your Committees believe that it is prudent to include in the standards for apprenticeship agreements that assurances of qualified training personnel, adequate job supervision, and the requisite specialty licenses be provided for in order to maintain the highest standards in apprenticeship programs. Equally, assurances that a need continues to exist for parallel programs is essential to ensure that only necessary and appropriate programs that meet the "equal to or better than" standard are approved.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Higher Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1889 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing.

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

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CLAYTON HEE, Chair

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BRIAN KANNO, Chair