STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3067

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2567

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2567, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PETITIONS TO TEMPORARILY RESTRAIN AND ENJOIN HARASSMENT OF AN EMPLOYEE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a two-year pilot project to authorize public employers to petition for temporary restraining orders and injunctions against employment-related harassment of certain public employees.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; Department of Education; Judiciary; University of Hawaii Professional Assembly; Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO; and United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO.

Your Committees find that there has been an alarming nationwide increase in harassment, acts of violence, and threats against public servants in recent years. These threats inhibit local officials' ability to perform their critical duties and drive people away from public service, leading to loss of institutional knowledge. As demonstrated by a similar measure in California, empowering public employers to seek district court restraining orders on behalf of all public servants based on public employment-related harassment appropriately shifts the emotional and financial burden of seeking legal protection away from the individual victim and onto the employer responsible for workplace safety. This measure therefore promotes workplace safety and, by extension, supports efficient and robust delivery of public services.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2567, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2567, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair