STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1645

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2021

RE: S.C.R. No. 98

H.D. 1

Honorable Scott K. Saiki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor & Tourism, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 98 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DIRECTOR OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS TO CONVENE A TASK FORCE ON PAID FAMILY LEAVE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Director of Labor and Industrial Relations to convene a task force to study, design, and develop a paid family leave pilot program with coverage limited to certain employers and employees to be established and implemented by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations as a trial program that could eventually be expanded to cover all public and private sector workers in the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Americans for Democratic Action Hawai‘i; Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks!; Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO; Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates; American Association of University Women of Hawaii; Breastfeeding Hawaii; Neighborhood Place of Puna; and seven individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and Society for Human Resource Management Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that the family leave provided under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, as amended, and under chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is unpaid, and as of March 2018, only seventeen percent of workers in the United States had access to paid family leave through their employers. Your Committee further finds that a majority of Hawaii's workforce cannot afford to take unpaid leave for family caregiving purposes. In December 2019, the Legislative Reference Bureau issued its Paid Family Leave Program Impact Study, which projected the costs and staffing required to establish and maintain a paid family leave system in Hawaii under three social insurance models, and reported that pertinent policy aspects would need to be determined irrespective of which model is adopted. This measure supports the creation of a task force to provide specified information and recommendations on a paid family leave pilot program.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Requesting that the task force develop its own goals and objectives for the paid family leave pilot program, and appoint a chairperson from among its members;

(2) Adding a representative from an employer organization, such as the Society for Human Resource Management Hawaii, to be appointed to the task force by the Governor;

(3) Requesting that the task force submit its report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2023, rather than 2022;

(4) Providing that the task force be dissolved on January 31, 2023;

(5) Deleting as premature, the request that the task force describe opportunities and challenges of expanding the pilot program to Hawaii's entire workforce and provide proposed legislation for an expanded program; and

(6) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Tourism that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 98, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to your Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 98, H.D. 1.

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

____________________________

RICHARD H.K. ONISHI, Chair