National Severe Weather Preparedness Week

We talk about it everyday!  Millions of people come to Hawaii to experience it.  That's our beautiful weather.  Yet, we know that it's not always good every day.  So on this rainy Monday morning, it's a perfect time to take stock of our individual and corporate plans for severe weather.

FEMA would like us to take this week to review our preparedness plans and take a pledge to prepare.  Listen to Craig Fugate's, Administer of FEMA, message, in the video below.  It's always good to be ready.

Hawaii Family Leave Law Update

      An interesting question arose at the Hawaii Employers Council (HEC) Workshop on Family Leave in Hawaii at the end of last month.  The question focused on the calculation of how much paid leave an employee is allowed under the Hawaii Family Leave Law, Chapter 398, Hawaii Revised Statutes.  The law says the employee is allowed up to 10 days of accrued and available paid leave of the 4 weeks they are entitled to. (See 398-4, HRS)  It's easy if an employee works a standard 5 day, 8 hour, 40 hour week schedule.  It would be the two week period or 80 hours.

     The question that arose at the HEC, was "what if an employee works three 12-hour days a week, are they allowed 10 days or 120 hours of paid leave?" The quick answer is no, Wage Standards Division interprets the law to allow 6 days of paid leave, in the example asked.

    Our analysis had to look at the intent of the law. The law entitles employees to a total of 4 weeks leave with an option of 10 working days, or two work weeks, or half of the entitlement, for the employee to use paid accrued or available sick leave. If an employee works 3 days a week, the four week period would be twelve days, and half of that is 6 days. So the number of days (6) times the amount of hours worked each day (12) would mean the employee would be allowed 72 hours of paid accrued and available sick leave. If an employee works a variable schedule, to determine how many days are allowed use an average amount of days worked per week, and allow two weeks worth.


     Expressing it as a calculation it would look like: (Normal number of days worked in a week x Normal number of  hours worked in a day) x 2 = # of hours allowed of paid accrued and available sick leave.

   
 Finally, HB 884, 2012 Regular Legislative Session,  that potentially added "Sibling" to the people an employee could be caring for with a serious health condition, did not pass out of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, so there is no change to the HFLL.

Free Safety Workshops April 23-24.

    Free saftey workshops with four different sessions over the two day period will include:

Monday, April 23:


I. OSHA’s Focus Four Safety Training / Construction (8am - 12pm)

II. Effective Safety Communication and Your Spanish Speaking Workforce (1pm - 5pm)

and on
Tuesday, April 24:

III. Elevating Work Platform (Scissors Lift) Awareness Safety Training (8am - 12pm)

IV. Safety Program Basics for Today’s Manager, Supervisor & Foreman (1pm - 5pm)

Details and registration can be found at the following link:

http://htdc.org/sites/default/files/HTDC-HIOSH%20Safety%20Trng%20Flyer%20Honolulu_0.pdf

Governor's Pacific Rim Safety and Health Conference

     The Governor's Pacific Rim Safety and Health Conference is just around the corner on April 16-18, 2012, at the Hawaii Convention Center.  The Conference is always an important event that provides insightful world-class discussions of various issues related to safety and health.  The biennial conference happens only in even years so if you don't go this month, it will be 2014 before you'll have access to this kind of expertise right here in own back yard.
     The Conference is co-sponsored by the American Society of Safety Engineers  (ASSE) and to get the details of the almost 90 programs and 100 exhibitors check out the ASSE website at http://www.asse.org/.
      There is guaranteed to be something for everyone in the program arena and all for a reasonable price.  The full conference fee of $475, includes all programs of the conference and lunch and refreshments for the three days.  Four or more attending from the same company and the price is lowered to $400 per attendee.  For those that can't afford to attend the whole conference,  there is free admission to the exhibitors on Tuesday, April 17, from 1p.m. to 4 p.m to tour the products and services offered.  Details can be found at the Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health Division of the DLIR.  See http://hawaii.gov/labor/hiosh/free-admission-to-pac-rim-conference-exhibits.  Hope you will attend and let  me know your comments.