REPORT TITLE: 
Public Employment


DESCRIPTION:
Allows a public employee to initiate a grievance proceeding with
only one appropriate agency.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        2083
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________


                     A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that the State's civil
 
 2 service system is based on "merit principles and scientific
 
 3 methods" governing the classification of positions and the
 
 4 employment, conduct, movement, and separation of public officers
 
 5 and employees.  The merit-based system was first developed in
 
 6 England in the 1800s to provide government service that was
 
 7 competent, fair, and free of political influence.  The United
 
 8 States adopted the concept of the merit-based system in the mid-
 
 9 1800s.  In the 1900s, the territorial legislature enabled
 
10 Honolulu to establish a civil service system.  In 1939, the
 
11 territorial legislature expanded this system to include the other
 
12 counties and the territory.
 
13      In 1939, fewer government services were provided in Hawaii.
 
14 At that time, the territorial government employed about thirteen
 
15 hundred civil servants.  In contrast, the State's workforce is
 
16 now around forty-four thousand full-time employees, of which
 
17 twenty-four thousand are in the civil service.  Of the remaining
 
18 twenty thousand, most of them are teachers, educational officers,
 
19 and university administrative staff and faculty. 
 

 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1      Over the last sixty years, the legislature finds that the
 
 2 State's civil service system has become overly restrictive and
 
 3 less responsive to the changing needs of the people of Hawaii.
 
 4 The legislature finds that the State cannot operate efficiently
 
 5 and effectively with a civil service system that is based on
 
 6 requirements and practices that may serve as impediments to
 
 7 change.
 
 8      Inefficiencies in the civil service system take a tremendous
 
 9 toll on the businesses, residents, and taxpayers of the State.
 
10 The legislature finds that instead of focusing on productivity
 
11 and outcomes, the existing civil service system tends to focus on
 
12 rules, job titles, regulations, and procedures.  This makes
 
13 responding to the needs of the public an afterthought to the
 
14 inflexible enforcement of bureaucratic requirements.
 
15      The legislature finds that there have been abuses in the
 
16 area of public employee grievance procedures.  Although the
 
17 legislature recognizes the right of employees to resolve
 
18 grievances, an employee should not be allowed to simultaneously
 
19 file complaints with several agencies to reach a result most
 
20 favorable to the employee.  In such cases, an agency is not aware
 
21 that the same complaint has been filed with another agency, and
 
22 conflicting determinations often result.  The legislature finds
 

 
 
 
Page 3                                                     2083
                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 that a public employee should be allowed to file a grievance with
 
 2 only one appropriate agency.
 
 3      The purpose of this Act is to allow a public employee to
 
 4 initiate a grievance proceeding with only one appropriate agency.
 
 5      SECTION 2.  Section 76-42, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is
 
 6 amended to read as follows:
 
 7      "§76-42  Grievance procedures.  (a)  An employee may resort
 
 8 to a grievance proceeding as provided by law; provided that the
 
 9 employee shall initiate a grievance proceeding with only one
 
10 appropriate agency.
 
11      (b)  The director of human resources development shall
 
12 [promulgate] adopt a uniform plan for the creation of grievance
 
13 procedures in the various departments.  The rules [and
 
14 regulations] relating to grievance procedures shall conform to
 
15 the following principles:
 
16      (1)  An employee may, without resort to formal procedures,
 
17           discuss informally any problem relating to the
 
18           employee's conditions of employment with any of the
 
19           employee's supervisors[.];
 
20      (2)  In presenting a grievance, the employee shall be
 
21           assured freedom from coercion, discrimination, or
 
22           reprisal[.];
 

 
 
 
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                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1      (3)  An employee shall have the right to be represented by a
 
 2           person or persons of the employee's own choosing at any
 
 3           stage in the presentation of the employee's
 
 4           grievance[.]; and
 
 5      (4)  All proceedings relating to the handling of employee
 
 6           grievances shall so far as practicable be conducted
 
 7           during office hours."
 
 8      SECTION 3.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed.
 
 9 New statutory material is underscored.
 
10      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
 
11 
 
12                           INTRODUCED BY:_________________________