Labor & Employment

Requires and appropriates funds for the Department of Transportation to establish a pilot program to offer fully subsidized public transit passes for department employees. Requires a report to the Legislature. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Authorizes the counties to require contractors to disclose information regarding their employees' wages, benefits, hours, and employment status. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Amends the definition of "employee" in Hawaii's wage and hour law by excluding individuals who are primarily engaged in the range production of livestock. Effective July 1, 3000. (HD1)

Requires an attestation or declaration regarding project labor standards, including adherence to state-approved apprenticeship programs and prevailing wage requirements, for covered large-scale renewable energy generation projects. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)

Allows newly graduated high school students to be eligible for workers' compensation coverage during the summer following their high school graduation while participating in Department of Education-sponsored work-based learning programs. Requires an annual report. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)

Exempts affordable housing projects that are financed by a nonprofit community development financial institution certified by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation as utilizing less than a certain amount from the Affordable Homeownership Revolving Fund from prevailing wage provisions. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD2)

Requires the Public Utilities Commission to consider whether approving a proposed merger or acquisition would or would not further the State's renewable energy goals. Prohibits the acquiring entity of an electric utility company from terminating or attempting to renegotiate any existing and valid power purchase agreements and requires the acquiring entity to assume and be bound by existing collective bargaining agreements and retain all covered employees. Establishes a process to ensure that when an electric utility is subject to an application for a proposed acquisition, merger, or consolidation by a potential acquiring entity that is an investor-owned utility and seeks approval of the application from the Public Utilities Commission, the electric utility shall demonstrate that it solicited bids from potential acquiring entities that operate under a non-investor-owned utility ownership model. Requires the electric utility to submit acceptable bids from a potential acquiring entity operating under a non-investor-owned utility ownership model concurrently with an application by a potential acquiring entity that is an investor-owned utility and the Public Utilities Commission to review those applications concurrently. Effective 7/1/3000. (HD1)