STAND. COM. REP. NO. 371-12
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2012
RE: H.B. No. 2711
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 Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2711 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A LIVING WAGE FOR WORKERS ON SERVICE CONTRACTS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to provide wage protection to employees of public contractors by requiring the contractors to:
(1) Pay their employees wages that provide an annual income equal to the poverty guidelines for Hawaii published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, or a greater amount; and
(2) Allow their employees to have access to and join labor organizations.
While employees of federal contractors have been provided wage protections since 1965 with the enactment of the McNamara-O'Hara Service Contracts Act, which required minimum wages to be paid on certain federal contracts, your Committee finds that service employees of contractors with state or county contracts are afforded no such protections. Although current Hawaii law expressly states that contracted services to be rendered shall be performed by employees paid at wages or salaries not less than the wages paid to public officers and employees for similar work, the law also exempts nearly all employees who might possibly benefit from the law and lacks sufficient enforcement provisions.
Your Committee finds that service employees of contractors with state or county contracts require greater wage protection and that contractors doing business with the State or counties and receiving taxpayer monies for public projects should provide a living wage to their employees.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Clarifying that compliance with state government labor laws is specific to Hawaii State government labor laws;
(2) Deleting the provision stipulating the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations as an enforcement agency over contracts for services as the Department does not enforce the terms and conditions of such contracts;
(3) Deleting the provision that prohibits a contractor from making any act or statement that directly or indirectly states or implies the contractor's preference or non-preference for the unionization of its employees, or for recognizing any bona fide labor organization as the exclusive representative of its employees, if at any time during the contract period a labor organization or an employee of the contractor seeks to organize the contractor's employees;
(4) Inserting a statutory reference to the streamlined union certification process that currently exists in Hawaii law in the provision that requires the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations to select a neutral party to conduct a review of employee authorization cards;
(5) Inserting a savings clause; and
(6) 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. 2711, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2711, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,
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____________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair |
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