STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3192

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 1917

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Technology, to which was referred H.B. No. 1917, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for collective bargaining cost items for Judiciary employees and their excluded counterparts.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary and United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO.

Your Committees find that in January 2020, the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic a public health emergency. Following the declaration, on March 4, 2020, Governor David Ige issued the first of several emergency proclamations pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic for the State, with the last of those proclamations expiring on March 25, 2022. Unions representing public employees in the State have been pursuing claims for temporary hazard pay for work performed by government employees during the COVID-19 pandemic pursuant to the hazard pay provisions of the respective collective bargaining agreements. This measure will allow the Judiciary to secure necessary funding to fulfill its obligation to union members pursuing claims for temporary hazard pay for work performed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of April 14, 2112, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1917, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1917, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Technology,

________________________________ HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair