SB2112 SD1 SSCR2394

STAND. COM. REP. NO.2394

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2112

S.D. 1

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 S.B. No. 2112 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify the impasse resolution process under the State's collective bargaining law.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the University of Hawaii and the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly. The Hawaii Government Employees Association opposed the measure due to a perceived technical flaw.

Specifically, the measure clarifies the impasse resolution process under the State's collective bargaining law by:

(1) Triggering the "backstop" impasse procedure (when an impasse is officially declared by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board) on April 15 of a year in which a contract expires, rather than in every even-numbered year;

(2) Providing that a proposed optional bargaining unit 14, consisting of part-time faculty of the University of Hawaii or graduate students with compensated teaching or research duties, be constituted and placed in the category of public employee bargaining units with the ability to strike;

(3) Ensuring that fact-finding is relevant to only the disputes between the parties and not burdensome or costly by removing the requirement that fact-finders replicate the full arbitration process;

(4) Fixing an end to the mandatory mediation stage by tying its conclusion to the fact-finding report being made public, to avoid confusion about sequence; and

(5) Harmonizing the date of release of the fact-finders’ report with the need for confidentiality in mediation and various possible timelines triggered by either impasse procedure.

Your Committee finds that the measure intends to preserve the fact-finding procedure and other traditional features of the impasse process. However, your Committee believes that harmonizing the various timing requirements with the new impasse timelines established by Act 253, Session Laws of Hawaii 2000, otherwise known as the Civil Service Modernization Act, is too difficult. Fitting the various stages into a flexible timetable results in confusing language.

Your Committee also finds that experience has shown that fact-finding is of dubious value because it rarely, if ever, results in an agreement between the parties or provides significant enlightenment of the public. It is costly, both for the Hawaii Labor Relations Board and the parties. It imposes additional hurdles and distractions at the very point when clarity and focus are most required.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) Triggering the "backstop" impasse procedure on January 31, rather than April 15, in a year in which a contract expires, so that the impasse procedure can begin early enough during a legislative session to provide a reasonable likelihood of settling the impasse prior to the end of the legislative session;

(2) Deleting the fact-finding procedure from Chapter 89, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(3) Repealing the employer and union fact-finding report and cost proposal submission to the appropriate legislative bodies, and inserting therefor, a series of progress reports by the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to the appropriate legislative bodies;

(4) Fixing an end to the mediation stage at fifty days, unless the parties and board extend it, rather than tying to when a fact-finding report becomes public information;

(5) Clarifying that after fifty days of impasse, the parties may resort to economic self-help or other tactics, consistent with law and any pending agreement between them;

(6) Requiring that the exclusive representative submit along with a ten-day notice of intent to strike, a statement of its position on all remaining issues in dispute, to the employer and the board;

(7) Requiring that within three days of receipt of a notice of intent to strike, the employer shall submit its position on the remaining issues in dispute that were included in the exclusive representative's statement with its notice of intent to strike; and

(8) Requiring that the Hawaii Labor Relations Board immediately release the information in paragraphs (6) and (7) to the public.

Your Committee believes that the deletion of the fact-finding and cost-proposal provisions dramatically simplifies the law and cuts administrative burden without loss of public oversight or encouragement of a settlement. The new timelines give the legislature a better chance of seeing contracts settled within the budget session.

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

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor,

		____________________________ BOB NAKATA, Chair