STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2477

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2846

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2846 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO NOTICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION INSURANCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations to accept notices of employers' insurance from approved third party agencies on a form approved by the Director.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142.

     Your Committee finds that existing law requires employers to file with the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations a notice of the employers' insurance on a form prescribed by the Director.  All workers' compensation insurance coverage information is submitted on paper forms and manually inputted into the Department's information system.  However, budget cuts and staff reductions have reduced the Department's ability to input insurance information in a timely manner thereby affecting the reliability of the data.  This measure will allow the Department to accept and input the insurance information electronically and eliminate the labor-intensive process the Department currently employs.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to ensure further discussion.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2846, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2846, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

CLAYTON HEE, Chair