STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2359

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2610

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2610 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STATE EMPLOYEES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to add a definition of "intern" to the State Ethics Code and include interns among state employees to whom the Code applies.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Ethics Commission.

Your Committee finds that interns should abide by the high ethical standards required by the Ethics Code, particularly for those interns who work full-time in the Legislature or an administrative agency and who would appear to an outsider to be a full-time employee.

Your Committee acknowledges the testimony of the Hawaii State Ethics Commission and recommends, as this measure moves through the legislative process, that your Committee on Judiciary address the questions that were raised by them seeking clarification of the implications of the definition of "intern". Specifically, clarity is needed to determine:

(1) If "intern" includes only those individuals who work for the State full-time, or whether it includes all individuals regardless of hours worked;

(2) If "intern" should include individuals who continue to be paid by their private employers while "volunteering" for the State, or whether the Ethics Code ought to prohibit individuals from volunteering for the State altogether when they are being paid for that time by a private entity; and

(3) Whether or not an "intern" will be bound by the post-employment law in section 84-18, Hawaii Revised Statutes, if their internship lasts more than one hundred eighty-one days.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2610 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair