Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Transportation and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 933 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to clarify the law regarding the requirement of the payment of prevailing wages to apply to all laborers, mechanics, required assistants, helpers, tenders, and apprentices on a public works project.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO and the Hawaii State Association of Electrical Workers.

Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), the General Contractors Association of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc.

Your Committees find that prevailing wage standards exist in order to prevent contractors from unfairly depressing the wages of those working on public works projects, thereby enabling them to unfairly underbid such projects. Under the current law, all laborers and mechanics working onsite at a public works project are entitled to prevailing wages, as determined by the Director of DLIR; however, the law does not extend to those laborers and mechanics working on the project but not at the job site. Your Committees further find that the payment of prevailing wages to required assistants, helpers, tenders, and apprentices of those laborers and mechanics, whether on or off the job site, is also not required under the law at present. These individuals, however, should also be receiving the payment of prevailing wages to ensure uniformity in the execution of public works projects. Therefore, your Committees determine that the establishment of clear standards in the law will provide equally patent guidelines for DLIR to follow in its enforcement of prevailing standards.

Your Committees believe that this measure should continue to advance throughout the legislative session and have amended this measure by changing the effective date of the Act to July 1, 2050 in order to facilitate further discussion on the matter.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Transportation and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 933, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 933, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.