STAND. COM. REP. NO.  502

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   H.B. No. 867

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 867 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WORKERS' COMPENSATION LAW,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to allow public employers and public employee unions to include workers' compensation coverage and benefits in their collective bargaining negotiations.

     The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Department of Human Resources Development, and Hawaii State Teachers Association testified in support of this bill.  ILWU Local 142 submitted comments on this measure.

     Currently, workers' compensation coverage and benefits are precluded from collective bargaining negotiations.  Allowing collective bargaining negotiations to include workers' compensation coverage options and benefits also would have a positive effect on the oftentimes adversarial nature of the workers' compensation system.  Your Committee finds that negotiations over workers' compensation items have been conducted in the private sector with success and that these agreements have often resulted in higher patient satisfaction, better quality treatment, and lower employer costs.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 867 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,

____________________________

ALEX M. SONSON, Chair