STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3026

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2605

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 2605, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish, administer, and support on-the-job training for individuals who are dislocated due to the closure of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company on Maui.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; Department of Agriculture; Hawaii Construction Alliance; Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO; Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.; Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; ILWU Local 142; United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO; Hawai‘i Farm Bureau; Hawaii State AFL-CIO; and Ponoholo Ranch.

     Your Committee finds that the closure of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company will result in the termination of about six hundred seventy workers from March to December 2016.  According to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, available federal funds are projected to be insufficient to serve the number of workers scheduled for layoff.  This measure will supplement the limited federal funds to ensure that workers can access necessary services, including on-the-job training, when they lose their jobs.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting an appropriation amount of $850,000; and

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage 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 H.B. No. 2605, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2605, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair