(a) The employer and the exclusive representative shall meet at reasonable times, including meetings sufficiently in advance of the February 1 impasse date under section 89-11, and shall negotiate in good faith with respect to wages, hours, the amounts of contributions by the State and respective counties to the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund to the extent allowed in subsection (e), and other terms and conditions of employment which are subject to collective bargaining and which are to be embodied in a written agreement as specified in section 89-10, but such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or make a concession.
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Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-9

  • Appropriate bargaining unit: means the unit designated to be appropriate for the purpose of collective bargaining pursuant to § 89-6. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
  • Arbitration: means the procedure whereby parties involved in an impasse submit their differences to a third party, whether a single arbitrator or an arbitration panel, for an arbitration decision. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
  • Collective bargaining: means the performance of the mutual obligations of the public employer and an exclusive representative to meet at reasonable times, to confer and negotiate in good faith, and to execute a written agreement with respect to wages, hours, amounts of contributions by the State and counties to the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund, and other terms and conditions of employment, except that by any such obligation neither party shall be compelled to agree to a proposal or be required to make a concession. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
  • Cost items: means all items agreed to in the course of collective bargaining that an employer cannot absorb under its customary operating budgetary procedures and that require additional appropriations by its respective legislative body for implementation. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
  • county: includes the city and county of Honolulu. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 1-22
  • Exclusive representative: means the employee organization certified by the board under section 89-8 as the collective bargaining agent to represent all employees in an appropriate bargaining unit without discrimination and without regard to employee organization membership. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
  • Impasse: means failure of a public employer and an exclusive representative to achieve agreement in the course of collective bargaining. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • public employer: means the governor in the case of the State, the respective mayors in the case of the counties, the chief justice of the supreme court in the case of the judiciary, the board of education in the case of the department of education, the board of regents in the case of the University of Hawaii, the Hawaii health systems corporation board in the case of the Hawaii health systems corporation, and any individual who represents one of these employers or acts in their interest in dealing with public employees. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
  • wages: includes the number of incremental and longevity steps, the number of pay ranges, and the movement between steps within the pay range and between the pay ranges on a pay schedule under a collective bargaining agreement. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 89-2
(b) The employer or the exclusive representative desiring to initiate negotiations shall notify the other party in writing, setting forth the time and place of the meeting desired and the nature of the business to be discussed, sufficiently in advance of the meeting.
(c) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, all matters affecting employee relations, including those that are, or may be, the subject of a rule adopted by the employer or any director, shall be subject to consultation with the exclusive representatives of the employees concerned. The employer shall make every reasonable effort to consult with exclusive representatives and consider their input, along with the input of other affected parties, prior to effecting changes in any major policy affecting employee relations.
(d) Excluded from the subjects of negotiations are matters of classification, reclassification, benefits of but not contributions to the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund, recruitment, examination, initial pricing, and retirement benefits except as provided in section 88-8(h). The employer and the exclusive representative shall not agree to any proposal that would be inconsistent with the merit principle or the principle of equal pay for equal work pursuant to section 76-1 or that would interfere with the rights and obligations of a public employer to:

(1) Direct employees;
(2) Determine qualifications, standards for work, and the nature and contents of examinations;
(3) Hire, promote, transfer, assign, and retain employees in positions;
(4) Suspend, demote, discharge, or take other disciplinary action against employees for proper cause;
(5) Relieve an employee from duties because of lack of work or other legitimate reason;
(6) Maintain efficiency and productivity, including maximizing the use of advanced technology, in government operations;
(7) Determine methods, means, and personnel by which the employer’s operations are to be conducted; and
(8) Take actions as may be necessary to carry out the missions of the employer in cases of emergencies.

This subsection shall not be used to invalidate provisions of collective bargaining agreements in effect on and after June 30, 2007, and except as otherwise provided in this chapter, shall not preclude negotiations over the implementation of management decisions that affect terms and conditions of employment that are subject to collective bargaining. Further, this subsection shall not preclude negotiations over the procedures and criteria on promotions, transfers, assignments, demotions, layoffs, suspensions, terminations, discharges, or other disciplinary actions as subjects of bargaining during collective bargaining negotiations or negotiations over a memorandum of agreement, memorandum of understanding, or other supplemental agreement; provided that such obligation shall not compel either party to agree to a proposal or make a concession.

Violations of the procedures and criteria so negotiated may be subject to the grievance procedure in the collective bargaining agreement.

(e) Negotiations relating to contributions to the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund shall be for the purpose of agreeing upon the amounts which the State and counties shall contribute under section county contributions; active employees” class=”unlinked-ref” datatype=”S” sessionyear=”2022″ statecd=”HI”>87A-32, toward the payment of the costs for a health benefits plan, as defined in § 87A-1, and group life insurance benefits, and the parties shall not be bound by the amounts contributed under prior agreements; provided that section 89-11 for the resolution of disputes by way of arbitration shall not be available to resolve impasses or disputes relating to the amounts the State and counties shall contribute to the Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund.
(f) The repricing of classes within an appropriate bargaining unit may be negotiated as follows:

(1) At the request of the exclusive representative and at times allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, the employer shall negotiate the repricing of classes within the bargaining unit. The negotiated repricing actions that constitute cost items shall be subject to the requirements in section 89-10; and
(2) If repricing has not been negotiated under paragraph (1), the employer of each jurisdiction shall ensure establishment of procedures to periodically review, at least once in five years, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties, the repricing of classes within the bargaining unit. The repricing of classes based on the results of the periodic review shall be at the discretion of the employer. Any appropriations required to implement the repricing actions that are made at the employer’s discretion shall not be construed as cost items.
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