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Committee advances county labor standards bill aimed at curbing cheating contractors on construction projects
Summary
SB 2140 would let counties request contractor wage and hour disclosures and, under certain conditions, deny or revoke building permits for violations. Labor officials and unions testified it would help stop repeat offenders who cheat workers and taxes.
The committee considered SB 2140 SD1 HD1 to allow counties to require contractors to disclose employee wage, benefit, hour, and employment-status information and to permit counties in certain circumstances to deny, revoke, or suspend building permits for violations of labor laws.
Bill Kunstman, deputy director of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, said the department supports the measure because it "has potential to increase employer compliance with labor laws and level the playing field for construction contractors." Representatives of Pacific Resource Partnership and the Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters told the committee they are seeing repeated violations by some mainland contractors and said county-level authority would be another tool to remove bad actors from bidding and contracting.
Mark Anthony Clemente of the Carpenters said noncompliance is widespread and costs the state an estimated $53.5 million in lost revenues, citing unpaid workers' compensation and taxes. Andrew Pereira (Pacific Resource Partnership) and Nathaniel Kinney described investigations and repeat bidding by companies previously cited by federal and state authorities.
Committee members asked how the new authority would interact with existing state and federal enforcement; witnesses said DLIR can already investigate on complaint-driven bases but lacks aggregated wage data unless conducting a discrete investigation. Supporters emphasized permit-transfer provisions included to reduce harm to innocent owners and to allow projects to continue with compliant contractors.
The committee adopted technical amendments and advanced the bill; members recorded one "no" vote during final action. The committee directed staff to include clarifying language in the committee report about enforcement discretion and the permit-transfer process.
