Bill Text: HI SB2202 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Employment Discrimination; Unemployed Status of Job Applicant

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-03-08 - (H) Referred to LAB/ERB, JUD, FIN, referral sheet 41 [SB2202 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2202-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2684

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2202

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2202, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Direct the Legislative Reference Bureau to conduct a study and gather information and data on whether employers and employment agencies are engaging in employment practices that exclude the unemployed from qualified applicant pools considered for employment in Hawaii;

 

     (2)  Require the Legislative Reference Bureau to submit a report to the Legislature, including examples of any notices or advertisements that exclude the unemployed from consideration; and

 

     (3)  Require the Hawaii Civil Rights Commission to provide assistance and information as necessary for the Legislative Reference Bureau to conduct the study.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State AFL-CIO; the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142; and the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.  The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission and the Legislative Reference Bureau submitted comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that there is growing concern over an emerging national trend, where increasing numbers of employers and employment services run job advertisements requiring that applicants be currently employed in order to apply.  The unemployment rate in Hawaii has remained at over six percent for almost three years, and job postings that explicitly reference the employment status of applicants only hinder the efforts of unemployed persons to reenter the job market.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the employment practice of employers or employment agencies publishing or causing to be published advertisements that exclude the unemployed from consideration for a job vacancy is against public policy.  However, your Committee recognizes the concerns raised by the Legislative Reference Bureau regarding the study's scope and methodology in reviewing in-state employment opportunity postings and the need for further guidance on what constitutes quantifiable exclusionary employment practices.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting its contents and inserting its original language as introduced, which amends section 378-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to prohibit any employer or employment agency from publishing a job advertisement that states that an applicant for the job must be currently employed;

 

     (2)  Deleting any references that prohibit a job advertisement from suggesting that applicants be employed as they are subjective and difficult to apply;

 

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to ensure 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 Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2202, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2202, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

		____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair