Provides that certification for handicapped persons for positions in public service be for the range of positions the person can fill.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Section 78-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§78-2 Equal opportunity. (a) No person shall be discriminated against in any case because of any physical or mental handicap, in examination, appointment, reinstatement, reemployment, promotion, transfer, demotion, or removal, with respect to any position the duties of which, in the opinion of the director, may be efficiently performed by a person with a physical or mental handicap; provided that the employment will not be hazardous to the person appointed or endanger the health or safety of the person's fellow employees or others.

(b) To promote employment opportunities for [the] severely handicapped individuals, all departments or agencies of the state and county governments shall develop and implement programs for the [selective] employment of [the] severely handicapped individuals. Such programs shall provide for [the] certification by the state vocational rehabilitation office [that the] of individuals who are severely handicapped [individual possesses the skills necessary to safely perform the duties of the position to which the individual will be placed]. Certification shall include the range of skills possessed by the individual and the various positions in which the individual could be placed, allowing the individual to transfer from one position to another based on job performance and skills."

SECTION 2. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.