STAND. COM. REP. NO.  467

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2015

RE:   H.B. No. 496

      H.D. 1

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 496 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to ensure that employees in Hawaii are provided family leave insurance benefits during times when they need to provide care for their families by:

     (1)  Establishing a family leave insurance program, which requires employees to make contributions into a trust fund to be used to provide employees with family leave insurance benefits to care for a designated person; and

     (2)  Appropriating funds for the implementation of the program.

The Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women; Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Planned Parenthood Young Leaders; Breastfeeding Hawaii; Planned Parenthood of Hawaii; National Association of Social Workers Hawaii Chapter; Filipino Law Students Association; Hawaii Association for Infant Mental Health; Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition of Hawaii; PHOCUSED; Hawaii State Democratic Women's Caucus; Good Beginnings Hawaii; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii; Inovi Technologies LLC; and numerous concerned individuals supported this measure.  The Chamber of Commerce Hawaii and the National Federation of Independent Business opposed this measure.  The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; ILWU Local 142; and a concerned individual commented on this measure.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Removing the provisions establishing a family leave insurance program and replacing them with provisions that establish a partial wage replacement for leave trust fund that is funded by employee wage withholdings to provide benefits for four weeks of paid leave to employees of private sector employers with at least one hundred employees;

     (2)  Appropriating funds for the implementation of the trust fund and benefit program; and

     (3)  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. 496, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 496, 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