Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 449, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to strengthen the State's Whistleblowers' Protection Act.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Teachers Association, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the Hawaii Nurses' Association, the League of Women Voters of Hawaii, the Hawaii Chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association, Common Cause Hawaii, the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women, and a concerned citizen.

The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO, submitted testimony opposing the proposed repeal of part III of chapter 378, Hawaii Revised Statutes. The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the General Contractors Association of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management oppose this measure.

Your Committee finds that this measure substantially strengthens the protection provided by Hawaii's Whistleblowers' Protection Act, which is designed to encourage employees to report violations of law or information endangering the public health and safety.

Often employees are afraid to report potential violations committed by their employers for fear of retaliatory discharge. Your Committee agrees that the State should encourage employees to come forward with information that may benefit the public interest, and therefore supports this measure, which increases the protections for whistleblowing employees.

Your Committee also supports the repeal of part III of chapter 378, Hawaii Revised Statutes, due to the similarities between acts that constitute violations of that part and the Whistleblowers' Protection Act. Your Committee supports the intent to combine the two laws and to make the penalties and procedures consistent.

Your Committee amended this measure to delete reference to an employee who reports information demonstrating danger to the public welfare, as opposed to reporting danger to public health or safety. Your Committee finds that in most instances an employee will not be qualified to determine when the action of their employer threatens the public welfare.

Your Committee also made several technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style and clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 449, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 449, S.D. 2.