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. 387 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to lessen the costs of workers' compensation claims associated with stress claims by expanding the prohibition of stress-related workers' compensation claims to include all lawful personnel actions.

The Department of the Attorney General, Department of Human Resources Development, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Department of Human Resources of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii Insurers Council, Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, and Society for Human Resource Management testified in support of this measure. The Department of Public Safety and Department of Education testified in support of the intent of this measure. The Hawaii Newspaper Guild, ILWU Local 142, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and Consumer Lawyers of Hawaii testified in opposition to this measure.

The Hawaii Supreme Court ruling in Davenport v. City and County of Honolulu that an injury stemming from personnel actions incidental to employment that serves as an important interest to the employer is compensable under the Workers' Compensation Law will have enormous ramifications on both State and county governments, as well as private employers. Although your Committee feels that the Davenport ruling is overly broad and tips the scale in favor of the employee, basic protections need to be provided to employees, especially since there is generally a disparate economic situation between an employee and their employer. However, limits must be crafted to ensure that Hawaii's Workers' Compensation Law provides benefits for legitimate workplace injuries in a manner that is fair to both the employer and the employee.

Feeling that this measure warrants further discussion, your Committee has amended this measure by:

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. 387, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 387, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.