Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 1843 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to reinstate binding arbitration for bargaining unit 9 (registered professional nurses).

The Hawaii Government Employees Association testified in support of the measure. The Office of Collective Bargaining testified in opposition.

Your Committee finds that under binding arbitration, when labor and management are unable to come to an agreement, arbitrators consider the issues at impasse and impose a binding contract on both parties. In exchange, employees give up their right to strike.

Your Committee also finds that registered professional nurses, like firefighters and police officers, provide a necessary and critical service to the people of Hawaii. However, unlike firefighters and police officers whose collective bargaining contracts are subject to binding arbitration, registered professional nurses are allowed to strike after negotiations prove fruitless.

Your Committee believes that the collective bargaining contracts of registered professional nurses should be subject to binding arbitration in order to safeguard the health and welfare of the people of this State.

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 H.B. No. 1843, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.