Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 18 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to pay for public employee salary increases that are a part of the arbitrated settlement between the State and the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the United Public Workers. The Director of the Department of Human Resources Development and the Chief Negotiator of the Office of Collective Bargaining testified in opposition to the measure.

Your Committee believes that members of the bargaining units represented by the Hawaii Government Employees Association went through the legally prescribed process and won the award. Therefore, the Legislature should fund the increase. If the Legislature believes that the award is too high, it should look at adjusting the arbitration criteria for future rounds of negotiations.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 18 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.