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House, Senate
bills disparate on
civil service reform
Labor-law experts say the
proposals are in line with
laws in other statesState House stands divided
By Rob Perez
Star-BulletinLet the bargaining begin.
The long odds Gov. Ben Cayetano faces in getting his civil service reform package adopted came into sharper focus yesterday as the House unveiled its initial stab at amending his plan.
Like the Senate version released Wednesday, the House draft fell far short of what Cayetano wants.
Spelling ever more trouble for the administration, both chambers' preliminary measures contain huge differences, raising the question of whether any agreement can be reached by the session's end in May.
As the legislative process moves toward Phase II -- trying to strike a compromise -- mainland labor-law experts said some of the major changes Cayetano is seeking are common or becoming more common in states with public-sector collective bargaining laws.
One of the most controversial proposals -- permitting management to unilaterally make a change if an impasse is reached after good-faith attempts to negotiate -- is found in many mainland jurisdictions, said Kenneth Kovach, professor of industrial relations at George Mason University in Virginia.
"Unfair as it may be if you're sitting in labor's chair, that's fairly common stuff," Kovach said.
Allowing counties to negotiate their own union contracts also is fairly standard, said Charles Craver, professor of labor and employment law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
For settling contract disputes, Carver said, about a dozen states have replaced the right to binding arbitration with the right to strike -- another Cayetano proposal.
While most states still prohibit public employees from striking, some made the switch because they believed arbitration unfairly favored employees, Carver said.
The House and Senate positions on those issues and others are far apart for now, underscoring the difficulty Cayetano faces in pushing his proposals.
The Senate draft, for instance, doesn't have the right to strike -- something the House includes. The Senate version allows for unilateral management action, which the House excluded. The Senate proposal also permits separate county labor contracts; the House doesn't.
What's more, both chambers rejected -- at least in this initial round -- Cayetano's call for reducing vacation and sick leave benefits for new hires, narrowing the scope of what unions can negotiate and establishing internal boards to hear appeals from workers fired or demoted for poor performance.
Mike McCartney, the administration's point man on civil service reform, said he was pleased nonetheless, noting that virtually all his boss' proposals were still alive in one amended version or the other.
"We are pleased that both the House and the Senate are taking the governor's proposals seriously," McCartney said.
The unions, which have repeatedly ripped into Cayetano's plan, aren't happy about major elements of the amended versions, either.
The Hawaii Government Employees Association, the state's largest public-sector union, blasted the Senate proposal, saying it was unfair to workers and would undo years of harmonious employer-employee relations.
"The draft takes away rights and benefits that made public service a source of pride and accomplishment for all public employees," HGEA said.
It's still relatively early in the process, and the proposals could undergo major changes before the May 2 scheduled adjournment.
Leaders from both chambers stressed that their versions were works in progress and that they intended to discuss possible improvements with the administration, unions and others.
Some House members said they hoped the finished product goes much further to reform government and boost efficiency
Rep. Jim Rath (R, South Kohala-North Kona) called the House's initial version a "10 percent" bill. "It's 10 percent of what we should do and where we have to go," he said. Rep. Dwight Takamine (D, North Hamakua-North Kohala), who was instrumental in drafting the bill, said it is a good start and attempts to balance the need for efficiency with fairness to employees.
One mainland expert, however, questioned why Hawaii is even trying to change what he called one of the best labor laws in the country, especially in light of the sweeping changes Cayetano is pushing. "It's scary," said Bill Barry, director of labor studies at the Community Colleges of Baltimore. "It's the equivalent of taking what has been a good, workable collective bargaining system and taking major steps backward."
State House divided on
By Rob Perez
what course to take
Star-BulletinSaying he was deeply embarrassed at the House's initial stab at civil service reform, House Majority Leader Ed Case said he may take the unusual step of trying to amend the bill when it goes to a floor vote on Tuesday.
"I simply don't know whether that's feasible yet," Case said this morning.
Case's public thrashing of the bill that two key House committees approved yesterday reflected a clear divide among the House's Democratic leadership on what constitutes meaningful reform.
Case, one of the Legislature's strongest proponents of overhauling the way government operates, supports Gov. Ben Cayetano's proposal.
But the measure that the House finance and labor committees approved yesterday fell far short of what Cayetano sought.
"To see my own House badly blowing it is just a source of deep embarrassment and disappointment," said Case (D, Manoa).
Because the committee members didn't have a copy of the bill -- it hadn't been completed yet -- when they voted late yesterday afternoon, relying on Finance Chairman Dwight Takamine's summary instead, Case said he's not sure his colleagues realized what they were voting on.
Case said he was in a meeting with Takamine (D, N. Hamakua, N. Hilo) and Labor Chairwoman Terry Yoshinaga early yesterday morning in which the committee heads, who were responsible for drafting the bill, indicated they would support certain positions of the governor.
But when the bill was drafted later that day, those positions, such as giving the counties authority to negotiate their own labor agreements, were not in it, Case said.
Yoshinaga, however, said there was no agreements made on what would specifically go in the bill.
She said the agreement was to make changes in 16 of the 18 areas the governor wanted
"We're moving on 16 of the issues," said Yoshinaga (D, McCully, Moiliili). "None of the parties are happy. That means we're doing something right."
Even though the House Democratic majority in the past has taken strong positions on civil service reform, the draft bill being considered by the Senate -- traditionally a more pro-labor body -- goes much further than the House version, Case said.
The Manoa legislator said he is pushing for changing the House bill because he believes a majority of his House colleagues support more meaningful reform.
"I don't believe I'm representing a minority position in any way, shape or form."
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