STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1180

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 326

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 326, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT COST ITEMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate or authorize funds for fiscal biennium 2021-2023 for collective bargaining cost items, including salary and other cost adjustments, for public employees in collective bargaining unit (10) and their excluded counterparts.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance; Hawaii Health Systems Corporation; University of Hawai‘i System; and United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO.

Your Committee finds that negotiations between the exclusive representative of collective bargaining unit (10) and the public employer are currently in progress. Allowing this measure to advance through the legislative process provides a vehicle to appropriate or authorize necessary funds if an agreement is reached or an arbitration award is issued prior to the end of the Regular Session of 2021.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 326, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 326, 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 Labor, Culture and the Arts,

________________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair