CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. 4

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 29

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

C.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the House of Representatives to the amendments proposed by the Senate in H.B. No. 29, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEAL BREAKS,"

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.

The purpose of this bill is to require employers to provide employees with at least a thirty-minute break for eight hours of work, except when the employer is:

(1) Subject to a collective bargaining agreement that expressly provides for employee meal breaks;

(2) A common carrier of passengers or a power generating utility regulated under chapter 269, Hawaii Revised Statutes; or

(3) The operator of a continuously operating facility that is regulated by environmental permits.

The bill also makes conforming amendments to the section prohibiting employers from preventing an employee from expressing breastmilk during any meal break.

Neither state nor federal wage and hour laws currently require employers to provide employees over the age of sixteen with any meal breaks, regardless of how many consecutive hours they may be required to work. Although your Committee on Conference is cognizant of the fact that many, if not all, employers voluntarily provide meal breaks to their employees, statutorily granting employees who work eight-hour shifts time to consume a meal sometime during their work shift, is reasonable. However, your Committee on Conference believes that statutory language granting employees who work an eight-hour shift a meal break would more appropriately fall under Hawaii's Wage and Hour Law than under the Employment Practices Law.

Your Committee on Conference further notes that the protection for employees to express breastmilk during a meal period only applies to meal periods or other break periods required by law or under collective bargaining agreements.

Accordingly, your Committee on Conference has amended this bill by:

(1) Prohibiting an employer from preventing an employee from expressing breastmilk during a meal break provided by an employer on a voluntary basis;

(2) Requiring employers to provide employees with at least a thirty-minute break for eight hours of work under the Hawaii Wage and Hour Law;

(3) Clarifying that an employer is not required to compensate an employee for the thirty-minute break;

(4) Excluding from the thirty-minute break requirement:

(a) Employers who are subject to a collective bargaining agreement that expressly provides for employee meal breaks;

(b) Common carriers of passengers;

(d) Operators of continuously operational facilities regulated by an environmental permit;

and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 29, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 29, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, C.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:

ON THE PART OF THE SENATE

ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE

____________________________ BRIAN KANNO, Chair		____________________________ MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Co-Chair
____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Co-Chair		____________________________ BOB NAKASONE, Co-Chair