STAND. COM. REP. NO. 979
Honolulu, Hawaii
H.D. 1
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Third State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 762 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAII WORKSITE TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER ACT,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to establish a procedure allowing employers to obtain temporary restraining orders (TRO) and injunctions to protect against worksite harassment.
The Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, Domestic Violence Clearinghouse and Legal Hotline, Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, Society of Human Resource Management-Hawaii Chapter, Sultan Company, Aloha Petroleum, Ltd., and a concerned individual testified in support of this bill. The Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii and the Hawaii Bankers Association supported the intent of this measure. The Office of the Public Defender, Consumer Lawyers of Hawaii, and ILWU Local 142 opposed this bill.
Your Committee has amended this bill by:
(1) Amending the proposed definition of "employee" to include any person suffered or permitted to work, including volunteers and independent contractors;
(2) Amending the proposed definition of "employer" to mean any person, including the State or any of its political subdivisions, the United States, and any agent of such person, having one or more employees;
(3) Adding a definition of "worksite" to include all areas within the same building controlled, managed, or maintained by the employer, even if not physically contiguous;
(4) Specifying that, to the extent feasible, the employer must consult with any invitee subjected to harassment prior to filing a petition for relief from harassment;
(5) Providing that the court deciding a petition for relief from harassment:
(A) Must receive evidence concerning the defendant's employment status and the effect of a permanent injunction on the defendant's employment status; and
(B) In determining the scope of a worksite TRO, may consider ways of restraining the defendant's conduct by geographical boundaries of the worksite, and restraining communications and physical proximity between the defendant and the person subjected to harassment;
(6) Providing that where an employee against whom a worksite injunction is granted has obtained reinstatement pursuant to the National Labor Relations Act or the Federal Railway Labor Act, the employer must petition the court to suspend the remainder of the term of the injunction if the reinstatement directly relates to acts for which the injunction was granted;
(7) Clarifying that the provisions proposed under this measure do not:
(A) Alter the legal relationship between the employer and the employee as provided in any other law; or
(B) Require an employer to initiate a petition for relief from harassment;
(8) Clarifying that an employer, employer's agent, employee, invitee, or witness is not liable in any civil action for actions taken in good faith in accordance with the requirements for filing a petition for relief from harassment, including good faith actions taken in investigations into alleged harassment;
(9) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2020, to encourage further discussion; and
(10) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 762, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 762, H.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,
|
SYLVIA LUKE, Chair |
||