STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO.756-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2112

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

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 S.B. No. 2112, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to improve the collective bargaining process by:

(1) Eliminating fact-finding as a means for resolving an impasse between a public employer and an exclusive representative; and

(2) Moving up the deadline for declaring an impasse in order to give the Legislature time to approve or reject the cost-items in a collective bargaining agreement before adjourning sine die.

Specifically, this bill:

(1) Requires the Hawaii Labor Relations Board (Labor Board) to declare an impasse by January 31 of the year in which a collective bargaining agreement is due to expire, rather than by April 15 of an even-numbered year;

(2) Allows the Labor Board to compel a public employer and an exclusive representative to attend mediation after the twentieth day of an impasse and until the fiftieth day of an impasse;

(3) Requires the Labor Board to inform the appropriate legislative bodies, on or about the fiftieth day of an impasse, that mandatory mediation has failed to resolve the impasse;

(4) Allows a public employer and an exclusive representative, after the fiftieth day of an impasse, to resort to such other remedies that are not prohibited by any agreement pending between them, other provisions of the collective bargaining law, or any other law;

(5) Requires an exclusive representative to give a statement of its position on all remaining issues in dispute to a public employer and the Labor Board when the exclusive representative gives its ten-day notice of intent to strike;

(6) Requires a public employer, within three days of receipt of a notice of intent to strike, to submit its position on the remaining issues in dispute that are included in the statement transmitted by the exclusive representative with its notice of intent to strike; and

(7) Gives part-time faculty of the University of Hawaii or graduate students with compensated teaching or research duties, herein constituted as bargaining unit (14), the right-to-strike similar to faculty of the University of Hawaii (UH) and the community college system in bargaining unit (7).

The Hawaii State Teachers Association and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly testified in support of the measure. The Office of Collective Bargaining commented on this measure.

Your Committee feels that the effectiveness and efficiency of collective bargaining will be improved through the elimination of fact-finding as a means for resolving an impasse, and by moving up the deadline for the declaration of an impasse.

However, this measure also gives part-time faculty of the UH or graduate students with compensated teaching or research duties the right-to-strike, similar to bargaining unit 7, through the creation of a bargaining unit designated as unit 14. Your Committee, however, does not feel that it would be prudent at this time to create a new bargaining unit for these individuals. Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by eliminating any reference to bargaining unit (14).

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 S.B. No. 2112, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2112, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor and Public Employment,

		____________________________ SCOTT K. SAIKI, Chair