Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred S.B. No. 55, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to ensure that employees are given a reasonable time, at least 30 consecutive minutes, to rest, recover, and take a meal break after working five or more straight hours.

The Convanta Energy Group, Hawaii State AFL-CIO, ILWU Local 142, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and Hawaii Nurses Association testified in support of this bill. The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and Americans for Democratic Action testified in support of the intent of this measure. The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), Legislative Information Services of Hawaii, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, Society of Human Resource Management-Hawaii Chapter, and The Hawaii Business League testified in opposition to this bill.

Although the provision of meal or rest breaks is a common practice of employers, your Committee finds that neither Hawaii state nor federal wage and hour laws currently require employers to provide employees over the age of 16 with any meal break, regardless of how many consecutive hours the employees may be required to work.

The provision of meal and rest breaks has garnered national attention. In fact, many other states, including California and New York, currently have laws that require employers to provide a meal break to employees who work between five- and eight-hour work shifts. Collective bargaining agreements often require meal breaks for covered employees. Your Committee believes that an employee whose job requires at least five or more continuous hours of work should be granted a reasonable period of time to rest or consume a meal during the work shift.

However, your Committee understands the concerns raised by opponents of the measure that the variability of job demands in certain industries may require that breaks not be given for a continuous, uninterrupted period of time since some employees need to "eat on the run".

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language from H.B. No. 338 HD2. In addition to providing 30 minute meal breaks to persons who work five or more continuous hours unless a collective bargaining agreement expressly provides for meal breaks, this measure, as amended:

Technical, nonsubstantive amendments were also made for clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 55, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 55, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.