§377-1  Definitions.  When used in this chapter:

     "All union agreement" means an agreement between an employer and the representative of the employer's employees in a collective bargaining unit whereby all of the employees in such unit are required to be members of a single labor organization.

     "Board" means the Hawaii labor relations board, provided for by sections 26-20, 89-5, and 377-2.

     "Collective bargaining" is the negotiating by an employer and a majority of the employer's employees in a collective bargaining unit (or their representatives) concerning representation or terms and conditions of employment of such employees in a mutually genuine effort to reach an agreement with reference to the subject under negotiation.

     "Collective bargaining unit" means all of the employees of one employer (employed within the State), except that where the board has determined and certified that such employees engaged in a single craft, division, department, or plant as provided in section 377-5(b) constitute a separate bargaining unit they shall be so considered.  Two or more collective bargaining units may bargain collectively through the same representative where a majority of the employees or each separate unit have voted by secret ballot as provided in section 377-5(c) so to do.

     "Election" means a proceeding in which the employees in a collective bargaining unit cast a secret ballot for collective bargaining representatives or for any other purpose specified in this chapter and shall include elections conducted by the board, or, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, by any tribunal having competent jurisdiction or whose jurisdiction was accepted by the parties.

     "Employee" includes any person, other than an independent contractor, working for another for hire in the State, and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.  "Employee" includes any individual whose work has ceased solely as a consequence of or in connection with any current labor dispute or because of any unfair labor practice on the part of an employer and who has not:

     (1)  Refused or failed to return to work upon the final disposition of a labor dispute or a charge of an unfair labor practice by a tribunal having competent jurisdiction of the same or whose jurisdiction was accepted by the employee or the employee's representative;

     (2)  Been found to be committing or a party to any unfair labor practice hereunder;

     (3)  Obtained regular and substantially equivalent employment elsewhere; or

     (4)  Been absent from the individual's employment for a substantial period of time during which reasonable expectancy of settlement has ceased (except by an employer's unlawful refusal to bargain) and whose place has been filled by another engaged in the regular manner for an indefinite or protracted period and not merely for the duration of a strike or lockout.

"Employee" does not include any individual employed in the domestic service of a family or person at the family's or person's home or any individual employed by the individual's parent or spouse, or any person employed in an executive or supervisory capacity, or any individual employed by any employer employing less than two individuals, or any individual subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Railway Labor Act or the National Labor Relations Act, as amended from time to time.  "Employee" includes any individual subject to the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended from time to time, but over whom the National Labor Relations Board has declined to exercise jurisdiction or has indicated by its decisions and policies that it will not assume jurisdiction.

     "Employer" means a person who engages the services of an employee, and includes any person acting on behalf of an employer, but shall not include the State or any political subdivision thereof, or any labor organization or anyone acting in behalf of such organization other than when it is acting as an employer in fact.

     "Labor dispute" includes any controversy concerning terms, tenure or conditions of employment, or concerning the association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing, maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment, regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation of employer and employee.

     "Person" includes one or more individuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives, trustees, or receivers.

     "Person employed in an executive or supervisory capacity" means any employee who has the authority to hire or fire other employees or whose suggestions and recommendations as to hiring or firing and as to the advancement, promotion, or demotion of other employees will be given particular weight; but shall not mean registered nurses whose compensation is determined on an hourly basis or who are subject to supervision by any person other than the person in charge of all registered nurses at the employer's premises.

     "Representative" includes any person chosen by an employee to represent the employee.

     "Secondary boycott" includes combining or conspiring to cause or threaten to cause injury to one with whom no labor dispute exists, whether by:

     (1)  Withholding patronage, labor, or other beneficial business intercourse;

     (2)  Picketing;

     (3)  Refusing to handle, install, use, or work on particular materials, equipment, or supplies; or

     (4)  Using any other unlawful means,

in order to bring one against one's will into a concerted plan to coerce or inflict damage upon another.

     "Unfair labor practice" means any unfair labor practice as defined in sections 377-6 to 377-8. [L 1945, c 250, §3; am L 1955, c 11, §1; RL 1955, §90-2; am L 1961, c 31, §1; am L 1963, c 53, §1; am L 1965, c 244, §1; am L 1967, c 253, §2; HRS §377-1; am L 1971, c 91, §1; am L 1985, c 251, §12; gen ch 1985; am L 2016, c 55, §5]

Revision Note

  Numeric designations deleted and definitions rearranged pursuant to §23G-15.

Case Notes

  Employee:  Individual subject to N.L.R.A. excluded, 49 H. 426, 428, 421 P.2d 294 (1966).  Applies to employees of East-West Center.  5 H. App. 37, 677 P.2d 477 (1984).