Bill Text: HI HB1896 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Employment.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-26 - Referred to LAT, JHA, FIN, referral sheet 2 [HB1896 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2022-HB1896-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
1896 |
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THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to employment.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many independent contractors were unduly considered "employees" for purposes of unemployment insurance, including individuals who operated through an independent company, filed Internal Revenue Service 1099 or W-9 forms, and even procured indemnity insurance for their contract work. At the same time, many self-employed professionals across Hawaii were denied pandemic unemployment assistance benefits due to misconstrued employment status evaluations and archaic and offensive plantation-era terminology embedded in Hawaii's statutes.
The legislature further finds that Hawaii needs to modernize its definitions of employees and acknowledge professionals who provide services on their own timeline, providing indemnity to the contract solicitors who are indeed self-employed.
The purpose of this Act is to:
(1) Clarify terms of employment and remove outdated language relating to "master-servant" relationships;
(2) Expand the parameters for the department of labor and industrial relations to determine that services performed by an individual for wages or under a contract of hire are not employment for purposes of the Hawaii employment security law; and
(3) Replace references to master and servant with the common law equivalent of employer and employee.
SECTION 2. Section 233-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§233-1 Certain relationship
deemed [as] that of employer-employee. Whenever a person, firm, corporation, or the like,
shall engage or continue in this State in the business of selling tangible
personal property, and shall cause [such] the property to be
distributed to, by, or through representatives, distributors, dealers,
salespersons, peddlers, canvassers, carriers, truckers, or the like, the
department of taxation may adopt, in the manner provided by law, one or more rules
or regulations providing that for the purposes of the tax laws administered by
the department, the group, class, or category of persons or business
described therein (to be determined by the department as may be appropriate for
the purposes of the particular rule or regulation) shall, irrespective of
whether the relationship or class of business otherwise would be deemed that of
seller and buyer, principal and agent, or [master and servant,] the common
law equivalent of employer and employee, be deemed to be that of employer
and employee; provided that no rule or regulation adopted under this section
shall apply to any group, class, or category of persons or business as to which
the department shall determine, or it shall be shown:
(1) That the potential
employee has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over
the performance of the business or services undertaken by the potential
employee[, and also];
(2) That the business
or services are performed outside of all the places of business of the
potential employer[, and also]; and
(3) That the potential employee is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the business or services in which the potential employee is engaged or which the potential employee has undertaken for, with, or at the behest of the potential employer.
As used in [paragraphs (1), (2),
and (3) "potential] this section:
"Potential employee"
means the person who by [such] rule or regulation under this section
would be classed as an employee[, and "potential].
"Potential employer"
means the person, firm, corporation, or the like, who by [such] rule or
regulation under this section would be classed as [the] an
employer."
SECTION 3. Section 383-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§383-6 [Master and servant]
Employer and employee relationship, not required when. Services performed by an individual for wages
or under any contract of hire shall be deemed to be employment subject to this
chapter irrespective of whether the common law relationship of [master and
servant] employer and employee exists unless and until it is shown
to the satisfaction of the department [of labor and industrial relations]
that:
(1) The individual has
been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the
performance of such service[, both] under the individual's contract of
hire and in fact;
(2) The service is either
outside the usual course of the business for which the service is performed or [that]
the service is performed outside of all the places of business of the
enterprise for which the service is performed; [and]
(3) The individual is
customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession,
or business of the same nature as that involved in the contract of service[.];
or
(4) The individual has liability insurance indemnifying the business for which the service is performed."
SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Employment Security; Master and Servant Relationship; Employer and Employee Relationship; Labor; DLIR; Department of Taxation
Description:
Expands the grounds for the department of labor and industrial relations to determine that services performed by an individual for wages or under a contract of hire are not employment for purposes of the Hawaii employment security law. Replaces references to master and servant with the common law equivalent of employer and employee.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
