Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 531 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to require that proposed adjustments to the compensation and benefit packages for employees excluded from civil service be at least equal to the adjustments provided under collective bargaining agreements to their civil service counterparts and subordinates within the employer's jurisdiction.

The Hawaii Government Employees Association supported this bill. The Department of Human Resources Development opposed the measure.

Your Committee finds that many of the employees not covered under collective bargaining are career civil servants who have competed for their positions in the same manner as other public employees. They have spent their entire careers gaining the knowledge and skills required to run effectively and efficiently the programs that provide essential services to our community. To treat such employees differently from--and perhaps even offer them less than--their counterparts and subordinates is extremely unfair.

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 H.B. No. 531 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.