STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1158

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 477

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Technology, to which was referred H.B. No. 477, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII EMPLOYMENT SECURITY LAW,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to modernize the State's unemployment insurance system by:

(1) Repealing the requirement to post work availability online;

(2) Amending the qualifications for unemployed individuals who are able to receive certain unemployment benefits;

(3) Beginning April 1, 2027, permitting electronic notification of determinations or redeterminations of unemployment claims; and

(4) Removing language that limited an individual's ability to change a previously elected withholding status to once during a benefit year.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, District Council 50.

Your Committee finds that the State's unemployment insurance system is outdated and often unnecessarily complicated for users. An accessible, efficient unemployment insurance system is critical to the State's social welfare. This measure modernizes the system and improves services for individuals by streamlining the work registration process, updating the electronic communication processes, and allowing claimants to change their tax withholdings multiple times in a benefit year. These changes improve the existing system and lay the foundation for a future modernized system with features such as auto-registration for work.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting language amending the definition of "registered for work" or "registration for work" in section 383-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, by:

(A) Requiring individuals to provide information to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, rather than the employment office, to facilitate work search efforts by the individual and increase job referrals by the employment office; and

(B) Repealing the requirement that the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations post the information provided by the individual, including the individual's name, job skills, education, training, prior employment history and work duties, preferred working conditions, occupational license, and other relevant occupational information on the Department's internet job-matching system;

(2) Restoring language in section 383-29, Hawaii Revised Statutes, referencing the definition of "registered for work" in section 383-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

(3) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) 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 and Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 477, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 477, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary.

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

________________________________

HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair