Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 31 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this Concurrent Resolution is to request Hawaii Uninsured Project to convene a Prepaid Health Care Act Task Force to review and examine the effectiveness of the Prepaid Health Care Act.

Specifically, the Task Force is requested to examine the feasibility of:

The Task Force is also requested to conduct a comprehensive study on:

Your Committee finds that employees in Hawaii sometimes need to take time off from work to care for their family members. Often, vacation time is limited and not all employers are willing to allow their employees to use their sick leave for this purpose. One alternative is to take family leave.

Your Committee finds that the State enacted a Family Leave law in 1991, codified as chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which entitles an employee to a total of four weeks of family leave during any calendar year upon the birth or adoption of a child, to care for the employee's child, spouse, or reciprocal beneficiary, or parent with a serious health condition. The law covers private and public employers employing one hundred or more employees for each working day during each of twenty or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, and covers employees who work for not fewer than six consecutive months for the employer.

Even so, your Committee finds that workers in Hawaii, after eleven years of implementation of the Hawaii Family Leave law, still suffer from the pressures and stress of having to work and to care for their family members.

Accordingly, upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this Concurrent Resolution by deleting its contents and replacing it with material:

(1) Amending the title of the Concurrent Resolution to read:

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 concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 31, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 31, H.D. 1.