STAND. COM. REP. NO.398
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2001
RE: H.B. No. 1130
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2001
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 1130 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT SECURITY,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to make the employment and training fund assessment permanent, and to set the assessment rate at 0.03 per cent.
Your Committee finds that moneys in the employment and training fund may be used for funding:
(1) The operation of the state employment service for which no federal funds have been allocated;
(2) Business-specific training programs to create a more diversified job base and to carry out the purposes of the new industry training program;
(3) Industry or employer-specific training programs where there are critical skill shortages in high growth occupational or industry areas;
(4) Training and retraining programs to assist workers who have become recently unemployed or likely to be unemployed;
(5) Programs to assist residents who do not otherwise qualify for federal or state job training programs to overcome employment barriers; and
(6) Training programs to provide job-specific skills for individuals in need of assistance to improve career employment prospects.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union, the United Public Workers, and Child and Family Services. Twenty-four other individual businesses supported the intent of this measure.
Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the National Federation of Independent Business and the Hawaii Business League.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Changing the employment and training fund assessment rate to 0.015 per cent; and
(2) Requiring employers who use or who are assisted by programs funded through the employment and training fund to contribute up to fifty per cent of the cost of the assistance in cash or in-kind contributions.
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. 1130, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1130, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor and Public Employment,
|
____________________________ TERRY NUI YOSHINAGA, Chair |
||