Senate Standing Committee on Labor and Technology

Labor and Technology Committee has a 3:05pm agenda. It's Friday, March 14, 2025. Conference room 224, Hawaii State Capitol. We just have one measurement on the agenda. House Bill 430, House Draft 2 before we proceed, this meeting is being streamed live on YouTube. The unlikely event that we have to abruptly end this hearing due to technical difficulties.

The Committee will reconvene to discuss any outstanding business at 3:06pm Excuse me, 3:06pm on March 17th in room 224. And a public notice will be posted on the Legislature's website this. There's a two minute. Today will be two minutes time limit for testifiers and you will hear a bell when your time limit has expired.

Okay, Again, House Bill 430. House Draft 2 Main 2 Internships permits Department of Labor Industrial Relations to enter into contracts with eligible employers or registered apprenticeship programs in the private sector to provide on the job training to eligible interns.

Provides that the state shall be the responsible employer for purposes of workers compensation coverage for students or recent graduates in the on the job training work experience program subject to certain limitations and appropriate funds. Okay, first we have the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. My name is Suma Gorham. I'm a, I'm an intern with the council. State Council in Hawaii, sorry, State Council on Developmental Disabilities. I think internships are incredibly important mainly because I'm an intern myself. I'm a recent graduate from uh, Manoa.

I was not in any related field, but this is my first time experiencing like the legislation, everything. I think it's one of the most probably inspiring processes that I've had in my postgraduate experience. So I think this is a really good measure and we are in strong support of it as well.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, up next we have University of Hawaii, Deborah Halbert.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Debbie Halbert. Vice President, Academic Strategy. The University stands on its testimony and support. I will note, as we say in our testimony, testimony that internships are one of the high impact practices for students if we are looking at students graduating and then pursuing careers.

So thank you very much for the opportunity and I'm happy to answer questions.

Thank you very much. Department of Labor Industrial Relations Director, Director Butai.

Great aloha. Friday Chair Aquino, Vice Chair Lee and Senator Moriwaki Jade Butai for DLIR. We stand on our testimony in support of the intent provided it does not adversely impact the priorities identified in our Governor's Budget. Request. Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much, Director. Up next, we have DOE Superintendent, Superintendent Hayashi.

Hello. Chair Aquino, Vice Chair Lee, Members of the Committee. Keith Hayashi, Superintendent, testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The Department stands in in support of this measure. We stand by for any questions. Thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thank you very much. Next we have the Attorney General. Department of the Attorney General.

Good afternoon. Chair Steel, Vice Chair Lee and Members of the Committee. I am Deputy Attorney General Liana Mashiro and I'm here to testify on behalf of the Department. The bill authorizes an on the job training program for interns to be administered by the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Our concern is with the provision on page seven, line six to seven, that requires the DLAR to establish criteria for interns to pass a criminal history record check under Hawaii Revised Statute Section 846.2.7. Section 846.2.7 requires fingerprinting which is sent to the FBI and the criminal Justice Data Center for conviction and arrest records.

It is unclear if this is a type of background check that was intended. If that is the intent, then a new paragraph will have to be added to section 846.27. And we are available to work with your Committee to draft a new paragraph.

However, they can already do a criminal history background check under Section 378.2.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes. Under either section, juvenile records would be confidential for 16 and 17 year old interns.

To address these concerns, we suggest deleting the wording of Subsection F5 on page 79627 or deleting the wording of Subsection F5 on Page 7, lines 627, and amend Section F on Page 6, lines 12 to 14, by adding the words May conduct criminal history background checks as appropriate so that it would read, the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations may conduct criminal history background checks as appropriate and shall develop eligibility criteria for interns.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify and I'm available for your questions.

Okay, thank you very much. Okay, up next we have the Hawaii Food Industry Association. Lawrence Zerbo, support. Okay. Eric Abe, Hawaii Primary Care Association. Jody Robinson O'Connell, Holocaust Resort Association. All in support. Healthcare Association of Hawaii. Page Choi. Also in support. Hawaii Pacific health and support. YP20 partnerships for education. God bless you, Steven Shots.

Also in support. I know. Yeah. And then we have Maui Chamber of Commerce. Okay. Hawaii Forest Industry Association can support. All in support. Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii Share Manure. Also in support. We have Liberty Dialysis. Palani Smith in support. Andrew Pereira, Pacific Resource Partnership, prp. Okay. Also in support.

And we have a Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association. Late testimony from President Mufi Hanneman also in support. Any others wish you to testify? Seeing none. Members, any questions? Okay, I had a question for maybe a private, a potential private employer, but I don't see any here. So seeing no questions, we're gonna proceed into decision making. I'm just gonna go back to the. Okay, Senator Moriwaki.

To the AG's comment right now on the bill that you your testimony. So when you suggest the language of may conduct criminal history background checks as appropriate, what you're saying is not everybody needs to have this heavy duty background check. As the language now reads, the as.

Appropriate would really go to the 16 and 17 year olds because they won't be able to get that information.

So as appropriate, as age appropriate or how shall we look at this? Because we don't want all the kids to have to go through this heavy duty background check.

The azopropia would be. Is it sufficient? Sufficient.

Okay. Thank you.

Okay. You're welcome.

Okay. Members, any other questions? Okay, seeing none, we're going to proceed for decision making. Okay. So For House Bill 430, House draft two Members, the recommendation is to take the Attorney General's recommendation for amendments, specifically the second bullet.

We'll be deleting the wording on page 7, lines 6 through 7, and amend subsection F on page 6, lines 12 to 14 to add the following underlined wording so that it may read as follows.

The Department of Labor Industrial Relations may conduct criminal history background checks as appropriate and shall develop eligibility criteria for interns, including requirements that the intern.

In addition to that, Members, we're going to add on page 7, Section 2, subsection F3C as referenced in a previous Senate measure, Senate Bill 327, Senate Draft 2 to add reference to a GPA minimum GPA of 2.5 or higher.

Okay, so it shall Reed have a cumulative college grade point average of 2.5 or higher on a scale of 4.0 or its equivalent.

In addition to that, we're going to add language on page 10, Section 2, line 14, as referenced again in the same Senate Bill that we have heard and moved over to the House to add reference to private public organizations placement names, so it shall say the names of the private or public sector organizations that the interns were placed at.

In addition to that, we're going to add language on page 10, line 15 as. Again, as referenced in SB327 concerning placement of interns in state Executive departments. Okay, so it shall read Placement of interns. This should be the title of this subsection. Placement of interns in state Executive branch departments, agencies or programs. Interagency collaboration.

It'll say subsection A. Department of labor Industrial relations shall collaborate with D. Herd to process all public program applications and place interns in temporary or permanent positions at state Executive branch departments, agencies or programs. Subsection B. Before the first day of each internship, dlir shall provide D.

Herd with the name of the intern, the state, the branch, agency or program to which the intern will be assigned, number three, the expected start and end dates of the internship and number four, any other relevant information that De Heard may require to assist the intern in pursuing future. Future employment with the state.

Okay, again, truly fulfilling what the HELE Program is and should be. Yeah. And again, we're gonna change the defective date. We're gonna make it a little bit More closer to 07-01-2050. Questions or concerns, colleagues? Okay, thank you very much for indulgence posture for the vote.

[Roll call]

Thank you very much. Must be Friday. Thank you very much everyone for your patience. Have a great weekend, everyone.

We're adjourned. That.