STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2267

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2449

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 2449 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require employers to initiate negotiations on repricing of classes within a bargaining unit within thirty days of its receipt of the exclusive representative's written request to negotiate; and

(2) Establish that the employer's failure to initiate the negotiation within this time frame and the parties' failure to reach an agreement within ninety days of the exclusive representative's written request to negotiate, or by January 31 of the year in which the collective bargaining agreement is due to expire, whichever is earlier, constitute an impasse subject to the statutory impasse procedures.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO, and Hawaii Government Employee Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and Maui County Department of Personnel Services.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance, County of Kauai Department of Human Resources, and City and County of Honolulu Department of Human Resources.

Your Committee finds that public employees in the State are experiencing significant difficulties in hiring and retaining employees. Your Committee further finds that in the past twenty years since civil service reform, public employees have sought to reprice their classifications with very limited success. Employers can deny pricing requests and claim that upon their review, they have determined that all current position pricing is appropriate without providing the basis of their determination. This measure will ensure that public employees are being paid competitive and fair wages, thereby enabling the public sector to recruit and retain more employees.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) 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 Labor and Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2449, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2449, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.

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

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HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair