STAND. COM. REP. NO.  199-14

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2014

RE:   H.B. No. 1976

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 1976 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to ensure that Hawaii's wage and hour law is strictly enforced on public construction projects by:

     (1)  Establishing the Wage and Hour for Public Works Projects Special Fund (Special Fund) to fund enforcement activities on public construction projects by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (Department);

     (2)  Requiring state departments receiving appropriations of capital improvement project funds to transfer a percentage of those appropriations into the Special Fund;

     (3)  Requiring the Department to provide to the Legislature an annual status report of the Special Fund; and

     (4)  Creating additional labor law enforcement specialist IV positions within the Department to enforce Hawaii's wage and hour law and appropriating funds for the positions.

The Hawaii Operating Engineers Industry Stabilization Fund; Plumbers and Fitters United Association, Local 675; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 1186; and an individual provided testimony in support of this measure.  The Department of Accounting and General Services, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters provided comments on this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by specifying that expenditures for creating positions, hiring, and training personnel for enforcement purposes are allowable expenditures from the Special Fund.

     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. 1976, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1976, 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,

____________________________

MARK M. NAKASHIMA, Chair