Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 182, H.D. 1, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Department of Health, with the assistance of the Administrator of the Employees' Retirement System, prepare and conduct a study relating to the occupational and health risks of refuse collection workers.

The Department of Health submitted comments on the measure. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations submitted testimony in opposition to the measure.

The measure further requests that the study's results be compared with the occupational risks of other county workers such as firefighters, police officers, certain investigators, and water safety officers to determine whether refuse collection workers should enjoy the same retirement benefits as those county workers.

Your Committees find that county refuse collection workers provide an essential service to the State, and are in constant contact with potentially dangerous materials. This contact and risk may account for the inordinately high number of industrial injuries reported by county refuse workers, which warrants further study.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Transportation, Military Affairs, and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 182, H.D. 1, and recommend its adoption.