Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2659, H.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for the establishment of two new positions within the Disability Compensation Division of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to process vocational rehabilitation plans.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State AFL-CIO.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) and the Department of Human Resources Development.

Your Committee finds that vocational rehabilitation is a necessary program that aids an injured worker in returning to the active workforce in a timely, cost-effective manner. Your Committee further finds that within the program, vocational rehabilitation plans must be reviewed and approved by DLIR; however, DLIR is currently experiencing a shortage of vocational rehabilitation plan reviewers. As a result, without the appropriate staff to implement the program, the extended delay of a worker's re-entry into the workforce will act to further drain state resources. Therefore, your Committee determines that the establishment of additional positions and the appropriation of the requisite funding for these positions will allow the vocational rehabilitation program to operate efficiently and effectively.

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 H.B. No. 2659, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.