Feds fund training for laid-off isle workers

The 421 workers had been employed by hotels on Maui and the Big Island

About 170 former hotel workers in Hawaii will receive job training from the state with more than $500,000 awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor yesterday.

As many as 421 workers were laid off following the sale of the Hawaii Naniloa Resort on the Big Island and the closure of the Kapalua Bay Hotel on Maui.

The Kapalua Bay in Lahaina shut down April 7 under the ownership of Maui Land & Pineapple Co., Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and Exclusive Resorts SM LLC, which are working to replace the building with a $300 million luxury resort by 2008.

The Naniloa Hotel in Hilo was sold Sept. 30 to Hawaii Outdoor Tours Inc., which also wants to turn the hotel into a first-class destination.

Kapalua Bay laid off 271 workers while 150 were let go by Naniloa Hotel.

The grant totaling $501,402 will not cover all workers because some of them found jobs and others didn't ask for state help, said James P. Hardway, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

The state applied for federal aid because it would not be able to assist all the hotel workers with the estimated $7 million that it allocates to unemployment programs every year, Hardway said.

Hawaii has been getting less federal funding for job support because of its record-low unemployment rate of 2.4 percent. There are about 15,300 people unemployed in the islands.

"We get a set amount of funds for job training and placement services, but sometimes you have situations like these that are out of our control," Hardway said. "It's more than what our present funding can handle."

The grant will provide the workers with counseling, job training and career planning in high-demand industries such as health care, construction and truck driving.