STAND. COM. REP. NO.409

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 577

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 577 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC EMPLOYEES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide Excluded Managerial Compensation Plan (EMCP) level employees salary increases and other cost adjustments that would be equal to those granted to employees covered by collective bargaining.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Government Employees Association, Managerial and Confidential Employees Chapter.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Human Resources and the Office of the Attorney General.

Your Committee finds that the Act 253, Session Laws of Hawaii 2000, allowed employers to provide variable pay adjustments, based upon performance, for excluded management employees. As a result, prior requirements that such adjustments be not less than those provided under collective bargaining were removed for this group.

Your Committee further finds that the majority of employees in the EMCP are career civil service employees who have competed for their positions in the same manner as other public employees. These employees have spent their entire career gaining the invaluable knowledge and skills required to efficiently and effectively run the programs that provide critical services to our community. They have risen through the ranks and are now managers who maintain the daily operations of the various state and county programs despite changes in the administration.

Therefore, your Committee determines that, in order to maintain parity in the area of pay and to maintain employee morale, EMCP level employees should be granted salary increases and other cost adjustments at least equal to their counterparts covered by collective bargaining.

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 S.B. No. 577 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair