STAND. COM. REP. NO. 228-12
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2012
RE: H.B. No. 1699
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Sixth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2012
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Labor & Public Employment and Economic Revitalization & Business, to which was referred H.B. No. 1699 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to promote the health and safety of employees by:
(1) Prohibiting an employer from requiring an employee to work for five or more consecutive hours without providing a rest or meal break period of 30 consecutive minutes, unless a collective bargaining agreement expressly provides otherwise for meal breaks; and
(2) Imposing penalties for the failure to provide a meal break.
Currently, neither state nor federal wage and hour laws require employers to provide employees 16 years of age or older any meal break, regardless of how many consecutive hours they may be required to work, although the provision of meal or rest breaks is a common practice of employers. While your Committees recognize that many employers provide meal breaks to their employees, your Committees find that statutorily requiring employees working for a certain amount of hours to be given a meal break will promote the efficiency and effectiveness of employees, and more importantly may reduce the incidence of worker injuries and will enhance workers' morale.
However, your Committees understand the concerns raised by opponents of the measure that the variability of job demands in certain industries may require that breaks not be given for a continuous, uninterrupted period of time since some employees need to "eat on the run." Your Committees also recognize that employees that are provided meal breaks may currently make arrangements with their employers to take their break at the start of or at the end of the employee's work shift. Your Committees do not wish to restrict in any way an employer from making these types of arrangements with an employee. Nevertheless, this measure deserves further consideration and these questions and concerns can be addressed as the measure makes its way through the legislative process.
Your Committees have amended this measure by:
(1) Allowing an employee that is scheduled to work a total of six hours to work without a bona fide meal period to complete their scheduled work hours early if the employee so chooses;
(2) Exempting employers who are operators of a continuously operating facility that is regulated by environmental permits as long as an on-duty meal period is provided;
(3) Specifying a penalty for the failure to provide meal breaks of one and a half hours of the employee's regular wage at the time the infraction occurred;
(4) Changing its effective date to December 31, 2057, to facilitate further discussion; and
(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor & Public Employment and Economic Revitalization & Business that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1699, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1699, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Labor & Public Employment and Economic Revitalization & Business,
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____________________________ ANGUS L.K. McKELVEY, Chair |
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____________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair |
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