STAND. COM. REP. NO.  49-08

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

RE:   H.B. No. 3029

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 3029 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC WORKS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to further clarify requirements for the payment of prevailing wages on public works projects by including, as a public work, construction contracts between private persons using state or county land for commercial, profit-making activity.

     The Hawaii Carpenters Union, Hawaii State AFL-CIO, and Laborers' Union Local 368 testified in support of this bill.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations testified in opposition to this measure.

     Chapter 104, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) establishes that prevailing wages be paid on projects meeting criteria that define it as a public work.  However, some confusion remains on whether the payment of prevailing wages are required under construction contracts between private persons using state or county land.  This measure attempts to clarify this ambiguity by specifying that prevailing wages be paid on these construction contracts if the state or county land is used for commercial, profit-making activity.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing its effective date to July 1, 2059, to facilitate further discussion; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     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. 3029, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 3029, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Economic Development & Business Concerns.

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

____________________________

ALEX M. SONSON, Chair