Hawaii-2016-HB244-Introduced

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the citizens of Hawaii have a basic right to enjoy legal activities during non-work hours without facing intimidating or coercive acts by their employer.

The legislature further finds that since 1987, twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have passed labor laws protecting persons who use tobacco products from being denied employment or from being terminated simply because they were unable to quit smoking. The legislature further finds that intolerance toward employees who use tobacco not only economically harms the dependent loved-ones of the individuals who are denied employment, but such discrimination also violates their right to privacy outside of working hours.

The purpose of this Act is to prohibit employment discrimination against persons who use tobacco products.

SECTION 2. Section 378-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice:

(1) Because of race, sex including gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, color, ancestry, disability, marital status, arrest and court record, or domestic or sexual violence victim status if the domestic or sexual violence victim provides notice to the victim's employer of [~~such~~] that status or the employer has actual knowledge of [~~such~~] that status:

(A) For any employer to refuse to hire or employ or to bar or discharge from employment, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual in compensation or in the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment;

(B) For any employment agency to fail or refuse to refer for employment, or to classify or otherwise to discriminate against, any individual;

(C) For any employer or employment agency to print, circulate, or cause to be printed or circulated any statement, advertisement, or publication or to use any form of application for employment or to make any inquiry in connection with prospective employment, that expresses, directly or indirectly, any limitation, specification, or discrimination;

(D) For any labor organization to exclude or expel from its membership any individual or to discriminate in any way against any of its members, employer, or employees; or

(E) For any employer or labor organization to refuse to enter into an apprenticeship agreement as defined in section 372-2; provided that no apprentice shall be younger than sixteen years of age;

(2) For any employer, labor organization, or employment agency to discharge, expel, or otherwise discriminate against any individual because the individual has opposed any practice forbidden by this part or has filed a complaint, testified, or assisted in any proceeding respecting the discriminatory practices prohibited under this part;

(3) For any person, whether an employer, employee, or not, to aid, abet, incite, compel, or coerce the doing of any of the discriminatory practices forbidden by this part, or to attempt to do so;

(4) For any employer to violate the provisions of section 121-43 relating to nonforfeiture for absence by members of the national guard;

(5) For any employer to refuse to hire or employ or to bar or discharge from employment any individual because of assignment of income for the purpose of satisfying the individual's child support obligations as provided for under section 571-52;

(6) For any employer, labor organization, or employment agency to exclude or otherwise deny equal jobs or benefits to a qualified individual because of the known disability of an individual with whom the qualified individual is known to have a relationship or association;

(7) For any employer or labor organization to refuse to hire or employ, bar or discharge from employment, withhold pay from, demote, or penalize a lactating employee because the employee breastfeeds or expresses milk at the workplace. For purposes of this paragraph, the term "breastfeeds" means the feeding of a child directly from the breast;

(8) For any employer to refuse to hire or employ, bar or discharge from employment, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual in compensation or in the terms, conditions, or privileges of employment of any individual because of the individual's credit history or credit report, unless the information in the individual's credit history or credit report directly relates to a bona fide occupational qualification under section 378-3(2); [or]

(9) For any employer to discriminate against any individual employed as a domestic, in compensation or in terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the individual's race, sex including gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, color, ancestry, disability, or marital status[.]; or

(10) For any employer or labor organization to refuse to hire or employ, bar or discharge from employment, withhold pay from, demote, penalize, or otherwise discriminate against an employee because the employee smokes, uses an electronic smoking device, or uses any tobacco product outside the course of employment; provided that any organization, whose primary purpose is to discourage the use of tobacco products by the general public, shall be exempt from the provisions of this paragraph. For purposes of this paragraph, electronic smoking device shall have the same meaning as the term defined in section 709-908."

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2015.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	244
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2015
STATE OF HAWAII