Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 3016 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow civil actions under chapter 104, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), for injunctive and other relief to be instituted by a joint labor-management committee established pursuant to the federal Labor Management Cooperation Act of 1978.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Carpenters Union. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Hawaii Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.

Your Committee finds that, under the current law, laborers or mechanics may bring suit to recover wages or overtime compensation under chapter 104, HRS. However, the law fails to contemplate situations wherein an aggrieved individual is essentially prevented from seeking redress due to a lack of information and resources, the fear of retaliation, or the inability to obtain injunctive relief against an employer who is continuously in violation of the law. Your Committee further finds that in other jurisdictions labor organizations have been successful in assisting aggrieved laborers in exposing and enjoining from further violative behavior, contractors who are continuously violating the law. Your Committee believes that the extension of the right to bring suit for injunctive and other relief against an employer in violation of chapter 104, HRS, will provide an additional remedy as well as an additional safeguard within the system to ensure that prevailing wages laws are followed and enforced. Furthermore, the limitation of the extension of this right to joint labor-management committees, as established by the federal Labor Management Cooperation Act of 1978, will also ensure that suits are only brought by cooperative committees comprised of an equal number of representatives from laborers and management.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubtantive changes to reflect preferred drafting style and for purposes of clarity.

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. 3016, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3016, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.