Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2033, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to require contractors on public works construction contracts to comply with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations' specifications for staffing requirements.

For the purpose of receiving testimony and facilitating public discussion, your Committee heard both a proposed House draft and the original version of this measure. As amended, the proposed draft clarified the statutory requirement that the payment of prevailing wages must apply to all laborers, mechanics, and their required assistants, helpers, tenders, and apprentices on a public works project, and not only to those who work at the job site.

The Hawaii Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization Fund submitted testimony in support of the proposed measure. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), Department of Accounting and General Services (DAGS), and the Plumbing & Mechanical Contractors Association of Hawaii opposed the proposed measure.

The Hawaii Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization Fund submitted testimony in support of the measure as received by your Committee. DLIR and DAGS opposed it.

Your Committee notes that federal case law relating to the transportation of materials and supplies to or from the building or worksite by the employees of the construction contractor or construction subcontractor may preclude the state from applying the prevailing wage to work on a public works project other than those on the job site (See, Building & Construction Trades Dept., AFL-CIO v. U.S. Department of Labor and Midway Excavators, Inc., 932 F.2d 985 (D.C. Cir. 1991). To ensure that state law will not conflict with this federal case law, your Committee amended the proposed draft by confining the prevailing wage requirement to work performed on the job site.

Your Committee has amended the bill, as received by your Committee, as follows:

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 S.B. No. 2033, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2033, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.