Alters the workers' compensation formula for computing average weekly wages for airline employees who are pilots or flight attendants, whether full time or part time, by entitling them to workers' compensation benefits based on an average of actual hours worked per week during the previous 52-week period or portion thereof. Effective July 1, 2099. (HB1449 HD2)

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The purpose of this Act is to address Joanne Wai v. Hawaiian Airlines, et al., S.Ct. No. 24352, July 23, 2004, wherein the court found that the contract of flight attendants who work less than thirty-five hours per week, designates them as "full-time" employees in accordance with federal aviation regulations, and that as full-time employees, the calculation of their average weekly wages for workers' compensation purposes under section 386-51, Hawaii Revised Statutes, should be based on the minimum full-time thirty-five- hour work week and not on the actual hours worked.

Because the legislature did not provide a definition for "part-time" employees under the workers' compensation law, the law allows employees who work less than thirty-five hours per week to be classified as full-time employees.

The legislature finds that it was not the intention of section 386-51, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to provide a windfall for flight attendants or pilots who work less than thirty-five hours per week by crediting them for additional hours that were not actually worked. Airline flight crew employees are unique in the way their actual work hours are determined, and the legislature finds that it needs to clarify this section of the workers' compensation law to allow for a fair computation of average weekly wages for this type of employment.

SECTION 2. Section 386-51, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§386-51 Computation of average weekly wages. Average weekly wages shall be computed in a manner that the resulting amount represents most fairly, in the light of the employee's employment pattern and the duration of the employee's disability, the injured employee's average weekly wages from all covered employment at the time of the personal injury. In no event, however, shall an employee's average weekly wages be computed to be less than the employee's hourly rate of pay multiplied by thirty-five; provided that where the employee holds [part-time] employment of fewer than thirty-five hours per week, the employee's average weekly wages shall be the hourly rate at the place of employment where the injury occurred multiplied by the average hours worked per week in the fifty-two weeks (or portions thereof) preceding the week in which the injury occurred, for the calculation of temporary partial disability and temporary total disability benefits only[. Other]; provided further, and notwithstanding any provision in this section to the contrary, when calculating temporary partial disability or temporary total disability benefits for airline employees who are pilots or flight attendants, the average weekly wage for these employees shall be the hourly rate at the place of employment where the injury occurred, multiplied by the average hours worked per week in the fifty-two weeks preceding the week in which the injury occurred; provided further that benefits including permanent partial disability, permanent total disability, and death shall be calculated as if the employee had been a full-time employee.

SECTION 3. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun, before its effective date.

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2099.