Saiki shelves bill A bill that would mandate employers to give a 15-minute break to employees during eight hours of continuous work took a break in the House Labor Committee.
requiring work breaks
The House labor chairman says
he's worried about telling
employers what to doBy Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.comHouse Labor Chairman Scott Saiki (D, McCully) deferred action on Senate Bill 2967 yesterday until he can determine what to do with the measure.
Officials from Oahu Transit Services Inc. told the committee that the bill would increase operational costs of TheBus by several million dollars.
Such a law also would force TheBus to eliminate popular single routes for operators and put most of its drivers on split routes separated by the 15-minute break, said Roger Morton, senior vice president of Oahu Transit Services, which operates TheBus and TheHandi-Van.
Currently, these straight runs give operators about a seven- to 12-minute break after the route ends; even less if traffic is backed up.
"This will be extremely unpopular with the senior bus operators who often must work as long as 20 years to develop sufficient seniority to be able to choose the favored straight run," Morton said.
Saiki said he has a general concern that the Legislature shouldn't be passing out mandates to employers.
"I've got to look at it more, I think," he said.
The bill bans employers from requiring employees to work more than eight hours continuously without a 15 minute break, unless a collective-bargaining agreement otherwise already provides for breaks.
The Hawaii Civil Rights Commission supports the bill because it strengthens a 1999 law on breastfeeding in the workplace. That law allows women to express breast milk, or extract milk for use at a later time, at the workplace during breaks required by law.
But there is no current law that requires breaks for employees, said Harry Yee, chairman of the commission.
Under existing laws, only minors are protected with a statutorily mandated rest break.
"Even though most, if not all, employers voluntarily provide breaks to their employees, these breaks would not fall within the scope of the law," Yee said in written testimony yesterday.
"Thus, employees would not be protected under the employment discrimination law if they want to express breast milk and are subject to an adverse employment action," he said.
Some Hawaii unions, such as the ILWU Local 142, believe a mandated 15-minute break will help worker productivity. Not doing so heightens the risk of inattention and industrial accidents, they said.
The Hawaii State AFL-CIO added 22 states, including Washington, Oregon and California, all have laws that require such breaks.
Legislature Directory
Testimony by email: testimony@capitol.hawaii.gov
Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes
Include in the email the committee name; bill number;
date, time and place of the hearing; and number of copies
(as listed on the hearing notice.) For more information,
see http://www.hawaii.gov/lrb/par
or call 587-0478.
