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. 2784 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to change the annual injury report filing deadline employers must adhere to for workers' compensation cases.

Testimony in favor of the measure was received from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, State Farm Insurance, the Hawaii Insurers Council, and a private citizen. The Hawaii Insurers Council also requested that an amendment be added to the measure that would:

Specifically, the measure changes the filing deadline from December to January 31 of each succeeding year.

Your Committee finds that under existing law, employers are required to annually file a report with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations on workers' compensation-related claims paid by the employer over the preceding year. This report is due on December 31 of each year.

Your Committee also finds that the Auditor, as one of the recommendations contained in a management audit report on the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations' Disability Compensation Division, recommended that this deadline be moved back to provide sufficient time to employers to file complete reports.

Your Committee agrees with the Auditor's recommendation and believes that more time should be provided to employers to compile such information. This action will lessen the need for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to grant filing extensions, particularly in cases where an injury occurred late in the calendar year.

Your Committee has amended the measure by adding a section that amends section 386-21, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to reflect the concerns of the Hawaii Insurers Council.

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. 2784, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2784, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.