Updated Hawaii Workplace Notices

Hawaii employers, it’s time to update! The Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) has updated two required workplace notices consistent with new laws passed last summer. Compliance Poster Company has updated the Hawaii All-On-One™ Labor Law Poster to include these major changes and other new information included on the updated Hawaii workplace notices.

Hawaii’s Wage & Hour Notice – What Changed?

Hawaii’s Wage and Hour notice has been revised to reflect an expansion of the Family Leave Law. The Family Leave Law allows employees to take up to four weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year to care for a covered family member with a serious health condition. Last year, the Family Leave Law was amended by House Bill 213 adding siblings to the list of family members for whom an employee may take Family Leave. Other family members for whom an employee may take Family Leave include the employee’s children, spouse, reciprocal beneficiary and parents.

Children are defined as any biological, adopted, or foster son or daughter, stepchild, or legal ward of the employee, regardless of age.
Parent includes a biological, foster, or adoptive parent, parent-in-law, step parent, legal guardian, grandparent or grandparent-in-law.

Family Leave is only available to employees of large employers, those that have 100 or more employees. Further, the family member’s condition must be serious enough to warrant the employee’s participation in caregiving and the family member must either be under inpatient care or the continuing care of a health care provider. Family Leave may not be used for the employee’s own serious health condition. Family Leave is unpaid but an employee may substitute up to 10 days of accrued paid leave for this purpose.

The Wage and Hour notice has been updated to show the addition of the term “sibling” to the state’s Family Leave Law. The Wage and Hour notice also includes a revised description of the state’s minimum wage rates for 2017 and 2018 and eliminates the wage rates prior to that.

Hawaii Occupational Safety and Health (HIOSH) Notice – What Changed?

Hawaii has replaced the Occupational Safety and Health (HIOSH) notice with a different version of the notice. The new notice reflects recent amendments that bring HIOSH standards into conformity with federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards.

Penalties for violations – Federal OSHA standards require states that operate their own occupational safety and health plans such as Hawaii to adopt a penalty structure at least as effective as federal OSHA penalties. Last summer, Hawaii’s Occupational Safety and Health Law was amended by House Bill 1114 which increased HIOSH penalties up to federal penalty levels and requires penalty amounts to be increased every year for inflation, as required by federal law. To avoid having to update the HIOSH notice every year with each penalty increase, the DLIR removed the penalty amounts from the HIOSH posting altogether.
Recording and reporting injuries and illnesses – Last year, HIOSH amended the Administrative Rules for Chapter 12-52.1 to conform HIOSH standards for recording and reporting occupational injuries and illnesses with federal OSHA standards. The new HIOSH notice expresses the requirement that employers report to OSHA any workplace incident that results in an employee fatality within 8 hours, and any inpatient hospitalization, amputation, or loss of an eye within 24 hours.
Discrimination complaints – The new version of the HIOSH posting clarifies the different time frames within which discrimination complaints must be filed. Complaints for discrimination arising from health and safety complaints or the exercise of rights under HIOSH standards must be made to HIOSH within 60 days of the discriminatory act. Private-sector complaints must also be made to the federal OSHA Regional Office within 30 days to preserve federal OSHA rights.
HIOSH responsibilities – The new HIOSH notice also explains the authority of the division to administer the HIOSH law, the occupations not covered by HIOSH, where to obtain copies of state law and rules, and how to make a complaint about the administration of the state program to federal OSHA. The new HIOSH posting recites the requirement that employers train employees in a language and vocabulary they understand. It also states that employers must post the HIOSH notice in a prominent location in the workplace.