STAND. COM. REP. NO. 419-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: H.B. No. 3011
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Labor and Public Employment and Consumer
Protection and Commerce, to which was referred H.B. No. 3011
entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to allow insurance business
employers to ask an applicant if they have ever been convicted of
a felony involving dishonesty or breach of trust or were ever
convicted of violating the Violent Crime Control Act of 1994.  It
also allows an employer to fire an employee after hiring if the
employee had committed any of the above offenses.

     The Hawaii Chapter of the Society of Human Resource
Management, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the Hawaii
Independent Insurance Agents Association, the Hawaii Insurers
Council, and the American Council of Life Insurers testified in
support of this bill.  The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission
testified in opposition to this bill.

     Your Committees find that currently, federal law requires
that anyone who has ever been convicted of a felony involving
breach of trust be prohibited from engaging in the insurance
business without prior written consent from a regulatory
authority in that jurisdiction.  Hawaii law prohibits employers
from inquiring of applicants about criminal history and limits
post offer of employment inquiries to criminal convictions in the
past ten years. 

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 419-00
                                 Page 2

 
     Your Committees find that this conflict in the law can be
resolved by the passage of this bill.  The language used in
section 378-3(12), Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) in this bill
will not conflict with section 378-2.5, HRS, that deals with
restrictions on when employers may inquire about criminal history
because the former is an exception to the latter.

     Your Committees have amended this bill by making technical,
nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity, consistency, and
style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Labor and Public Employment and Consumer Protection
and Commerce that are attached to this report, your Committees
are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 3011, as
amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the
form attached hereto as H.B. No. 3011, 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,



_______________________________    _______________________________
RON MENOR, Chair                   TERRY NUI YOSHINAGA, Chair