Makes it a defense to the offense of trespass that the defendant was engaged in labor dispute picketing at a mall, shopping center, resort, or hotel complex, provided that the picketing is limited to areas accessible to the general public, is confined to the entrance and exit of the employer involved, and is conducted only when the employer's employees are on the premises.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act clearly establishes as labor policy the right of workers to engage in collective bargaining and, specifically, the right to "engage in concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection." This right, first articulated in 1935, did not imagine the proliferation of shopping malls and shopping centers that today enable employers to escape the provisions of this law. The inability of unions to engage in concerted activity directed at an employer doing business in a mall, shopping center, resort, or hotel complex gives an unfair advantage to the employer and denies the employees the right that state and federal labor law are supposed to protect.

SECTION 2. Section 708-816, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§708-816 Defense to trespass. It is a defense to prosecution for trespass as a violation of sections 708-814 and 708-815 that the defendant [entered]:

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.