Committee advances amended rest-breaks bill for food-service employees (SB1034)

The Senate Committee on Labor and Technology advanced Senate Bill 1034 with amendments on Feb. 7. The original proposal would have required employers in the food-service industry to allow employees an unpaid 30‑minute rest period for each five consecutive hours of working time; after testimony the committee removed the specific hour threshold from the bill text and directed staff to add a definition of "food service industry."

Jane Butai, Director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), stood on the department's written comments and offered comments at the hearing. Victor Lim of the Hawaii Restaurant Association said many restaurants already provide such breaks and suggested that a threshold of five hours may not reflect typical shifts (he suggested a longer shift threshold such as seven hours might better reflect practice). Alexis Chapman for the Hawaii Food Industry Association noted that the measure did not include a definition of "food service industry" in the applicable section of the Hawaii Revised Statutes and urged the committee to clarify that in the bill language.

After conferring with the bill author, committee members blanked the hours value in the statute text at the author's request, added a definition of food service industry, and set a defective effective date (07/01/2015 in the committee draft). The committee recorded its recommendation to pass with amendments; senators Ihara and Fevella were recorded as excused.