STAND. COM. REP. NO 429

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 129

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 129 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require certain employers to provide sick leave to service workers for specified purposes under certain conditions.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, Americans for Democratic Action Hawaii, Hawaii State AFL-CIO, ILWU Local 142, Hawaii Government Employees Association, and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, First Hawaiian Bank, National Federation of Independent Business, ABC Stores, Society for Human Resource Management Hawaii Chapter, Times Supermarket, Hawaii Food Industry Association, and one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure would provide paid sick leave for many workers who currently are not entitled to sick leave.  Upon consideration of testimony, your Committee finds that employers that already have a paid leave policy more generous than required by this measure should be exempted from the provisions of this measure.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting the definition of "retaliatory personnel action";

 

     (2)  Amending the definition of "service worker" to specifically include employees of food establishments and adding a definition for "food establishment";

 

     (3)  Providing an exemption for employers who:

 

          (A)  Offers paid leave that may be used at a rate greater than required by this measure; and

 

          (B)  Have a sick leave policy approved by the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations;

 

     (4)  Applying "earned" sick leave as opposed to "accrued" sick leave;

 

     (5)  Deleting language relating to notice of intention to use leave and documentation of the purpose for which leave is taken;

 

     (6)  Adding the new language to chapter 388, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as opposed to 386, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

 

     (7)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (8)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 129, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 129, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 


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

 

 

 

____________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair