STAND. COM. REP. NO. 359

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 1161
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was
referred H.B. No. 1161 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENFORCEMENT OF WAGE LAWS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to clarify that attorney's fees
and other costs of the opposing party should not be assessed
against the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations (Director)
in cases involving the collection of unpaid wages.

     The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations testified
in support of this bill.

     Your Committee finds that the primary purpose of chapters
387 and 388, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is to ensure that workers:

     (1)  Are paid the wages due to them; and

     (2)  Those wages are paid in a timely manner.

     When those two criteria are not met, many affected workers
turn to the Director for assistance to collect these wages.  The
Director may bring legal action on behalf of the workers to
collect the unpaid wages.  Your Committee finds that under
current law, it is clear that the Director is not required to pay
the filing fee or other costs incurred in the pursuit of
collecting unpaid wages.  This measure clarifies that attorney's

 
 
 
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                                 Page 2

 
fees and costs of the opposing party also cannot be assessed
against the Director in these cases.

     Your Committee further finds that this measure is necessary
to ensure that the courts will not assess attorney's fees and
costs against the Director when the Director fails to prevail, as
one court recently did.  If attorney's fees and costs continue to
be assessed against the Director, then the Director may not be
able to afford to pursue and enforce the wage laws in as many
cases as currently pursued.

     Your Committee amended this bill by making technical,
nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style, clarity, and
consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Labor and Public Employment that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of H.B. No. 1161, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1161, H.D.
1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian
Affairs.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Labor and Public
                                   Employment,



                                   ______________________________
                                   TERRY NUI YOSHINAGA, Chair