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. 1502 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to allow owners of employing units to themselves opt out of being eligible for benefits under the unemployment compensation laws.

Specifically, this measure deems as excluded service the service of an individual who holds more than a fifty per cent ownership interest in the employing unit and elects to be excluded from unemployment benefit coverage.

Your Committee has amended this measure by adding a new section amending the provisions on disqualification for benefits.

This bill, as amended, limits optional exemptions from the unemployment insurance law for business owners holding at least a fifty per cent interest in their company and amends the disqualification for unemployment benefits of an owner-employee of a corporation who voluntarily leaves employment. As amended, this bill also requires unemployment benefits to be paid to an owner-employee of a corporation who brings about the owner-employee's own unemployment by actions such as divesting ownership, leasing the business interest, or terminating the business, as long as the owner-employee has made the contributions required by the unemployment compensation law.

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. 1502, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1502, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.