Bill Text: HI HB2507 | 2024 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating To Remote Work.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 22-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2024-01-26 - Referred to LGO, FIN, referral sheet 3 [HB2507 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2024-HB2507-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	2507
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2024
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

 

relating to remote work.

 

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 

     SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that there are a meaningful number of state jobs that can be performed by working remotely, rather than reporting to work in a physical state office.  Additionally, while housing is expensive across the State, there are areas in Hawaii, including rural portions of  Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai counties, that have substantially less expensive housing than in urban and more populated areas. The department of human resources development reported to the 2023 legislature that nearly four thousand of seventeen thousand civil service positions in the state executive branch were vacant as of November, 2022, not including the university of Hawaii system or the department of education.

     The legislature further finds that identifying state jobs that are good candidates for remote work; identifying areas of the State where housing is relatively affordable but good-paying jobs are not readily available; and pairing the remote jobs with remote Hawaii workers, would meaningfully address issues of affordability, help keep local families in Hawaii, and strengthen community ties.

     The legislature also finds that there are significant economic benefits for local communities when their resident populations can live, work, shop, and play in the community.  Local businesses in the community benefit from a more stable population base.  Local civic organizations in the community benefit from more highly engaged residents.  Local schools in the area benefit from a more robust and consistent student population.  Local students graduating from their area schools are more likely to stay in, or return to, their communities if they know their employment prospects in those areas are greater.  Local economies can be fortified and help to distribute economic strength across the State and beyond the major population centers.  A bigger government sector in rural and neighbor island communities further helps diversify local economies and supports resilience in the event of future economic downturns.

     There are workers in areas across Hawaii who would live near their families and in their communities if they could afford to do so.  To assist with aligning the needs of families' housing and jobs, the legislature finds that funds should be invested in these areas to ensure that these areas have sufficient broadband infrastructure to support an increase in remote workers and sufficient co-working facilities to assist people who want to stay in their communities to work but do not have appropriate space in their own homes.  Co-working facilities can also be used for community events in the evenings, weekends, and off-work hours.  Existing state facilities, like state libraries could be utilized as co-working facilities.

     Through efforts such as the mandate of the school facilities authority to build educator workforce housing on underutilized department of education land, the State is aligning the demands for work and jobs while making them both accessible to communities near where workers live, work, play, and shop.  People often leave their communities to look for work in other places when they cannot find good-paying jobs in their own communities.  Connecting workers in those communities with jobs they can perform remotely will enable them to stay in their communities, strengthening and solidifying community ties as a result.

     The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to much of the State working remotely full-time.  Workplace flexibilities also played a significant role nationwide in ensuring employees were able to meet both their work and family responsibilities.  The federal government has had remote work options for its employees since the 1970s.  Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only three per cent of federal employees teleworked every day, but that amount grew substantially during the peak of the pandemic when a record fifty-nine per cent of employees worked from home daily.  Accordingly, in March 2020, the United States Office of Management and Budget released guidance on telework flexibilities for the federal government.

     Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, telecommuting and remote services have remained popular.  This has led to renewed interest in strategies to create more sustainable communities.  Federal agencies, such as the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, have published guidelines for implementing the shift to a remote, hybrid, and flexible work schedules beyond the pandemic and into the future.  Remote services such as e-learning, online shopping, and telemedicine, which also expanded during the pandemic, continue to reduce the need for in-person interactions and travel.

     According to the 2023 California Air Resources Board project:

"Telecommuting can reduce how much people drive when employees no longer have to travel to and from work, reducing the number of vehicle trips and driving on the road.  Moreover, telecommuting can lessen the need for office space, which can free up land for other purposes, such as public parks or affordable housing, and reduce the need for new infrastructure development.  This transformation can contribute to sustainable land use patterns and promote more compact, walkable, and bikeable communities."

     The legislature finds that, for remote work to make life more affordable in Hawaii, remote work should be established in conjunction with developing sustainable communities, as this would decrease the need for vehicle ownership and allow a substantial proportion of a household budget to be spent on other amenities to make life affordable and even more pleasurable for working families.  Unfortunately, transportation costs tend to be borne disproportionately by the most vulnerable in the community and must be addressed alongside affordable housing strategies, or these inequities will persist.  In Hawaii, Ulupono Initiative's Vehicle Economy Study (2021) showed that personal vehicles cost an additional $16,200 per household per year, or $8,100 per vehicle per year, and that, regardless of whether households owned cars, the public cost of sustaining Hawaii's vehicle economy amounts to roughly $15,000 per taxpayer per year, or $24,400 per household per year.  For a state where household median income is roughly $80,000 per year, these costs amount to about thirty per cent of household pre-tax income.

     Providing transportation options along with affordable housing will not only make life more affordable in Hawaii, but also support broader efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to support the State's decarbonization goals.  According to the Honolulu connect transportation demand management plan, approximately thirty to fifty per cent of trips made by people driving alone in Honolulu are under three miles, which presents a key opportunity for shifting travel behavior to more sustainable and affordable modes of transportation.

     To address the issue of sustainable communities, the city and county of Honolulu's HNL connect program is set within a robust policy context of several plans and informed by studies that emphasize that affordability lies not only in housing but also the infrastructure supporting it, including and especially the transportation system.  Following a similar policy context statewide would ensure a more positive outcome for local and working families in Hawaii.  Examples of these plans include:

     (1)  The city and county of Honolulu's 2020-2025 climate action plan;

     (2)  Energy conservation and emissions reduction plan for city transportation systems;

     (3)  Oahu regional transportation plan 2050;

     (4)  Honolulu complete streets law (section 14-18, Revised Ordinances of Honolulu);

     (5)  Oahu pedestrian plan (2022);

     (6)  Oahu bike plan (2019);

     (7)  Statewide transportation demand forecasting model;

     (8)  Oahu general plan (2021);

     (9)  Neighborhood transit-oriented development plans;

    (10)  Bikeshare organizational study (2014); and

    (11)  The forthcoming vision zero action plan, Honolulu strategic transportation plan and Oahu mobility hub study.

     Remote work also exposes existing inequities in the system that need to be addressed as the option to work from home expands.  The Oahu metropolitan planning organization's August 2021 study on telework Work Where You Live found that not everyone's job allowed them to telework; seventy-four per cent of employees participated in teleworking from March 2020 through March 31, 2021.  Those that teleworked were satisfied, but tended to live further away (the median daily commute time for telework employees was forty-one minutes while the median commute time for non-telework employees was shorter at just twenty-nine minutes), and the telework employees between the ages of eighteen to forty-four had childcare responsibilities during the pandemic.  Telework personnel were also more likely to be female (fifty-nine per cent) compared to non-telework personnel (fifty-three per cent).  The median household income for employees who teleworked was $98,639.  For non-telework employees, the median income was slightly lower at $94,467.

     To address inequities faced by those in lower income groups, remote and hybrid work policies should consider the most common issues faced by teleworkers during the pandemic, and beyond.  Oahu metropolitan planning organization's Compilation of Best Practices cites that the most common issues faced by teleworkers during the pandemic were overworking or inability to unplug, nonwork distractions, technology problems, and lack of reliable Wi-Fi.

     The legislature finds that, to address these issues for remote workers and implement best practices, employers should consider the following recommended remote work employment practices:

     (1)  Establishing policies that provide clear guidelines for teleworking that also allow departments to establish their own teleworking practices within those guidelines;

     (2)  Establishing clear procedures for implementing a fair and consistent teleworking policy;

     (3)  Providing appropriate training sessions and materials to support training;

     (4)  Providing ongoing support when requested, and clear communication of updates as needed, recognizing that employees and managers must invest additional effort to ensure their communications are effective, their message is clear, and that they are providing a continuous flow of information;

     (5)  Technology:

          (A)  Providing employees at an alternate worksite with the tools and the training to perform their job, including a computer, broadband connection and programs that are comparable to what they would have available in the central worksite;

          (B)  Updating technology to support access to files for employees working away from a central worksite and still maintaining security, as there has been a market trend away from organization-owned and -controlled computing resources towards mobile, cloud, and leased computing resources (a trend that the federal government is embracing); and

          (C)  Ensuring teleworkers and office workers have access to collaboration tools;

     (6)  Engaging in frequent consultations with unions to ensure a clear understanding of policy and procedures and how it benefits employees;

     (7)  Allocating resources appropriately to support technology investment and on-going training and support;

     (8)  Developing plans to identify the best design and use of onsite work facilities to accommodate the changing needs of the workforce;

     (9)  Subsidizing childcare and eldercare arrangements;

    (10)  Providing stable broadband and quick resolution of technology issues;

    (11)  Providing access to mental and physical health breaks;

    (12)  Introducing or reintroducing a vanpool subsidy where transit is sparse; and

    (13)  Providing free transit for county and state employees where transit is a viable option.

     It is the legislatures intent to conduct a statewide remote work study and develop and administer a remote work program, that strengthens remote work infrastructure to increase affordability in Hawaii to keep local working families in the state, and incentivize the return of former residents, manage the shift to a more modern and flexible work future, and decrease local families' transportation costs.  Accordingly, the purpose of this Act is to:

     (1)  Require the department of human resources development to:

          (A)  Conduct a statewide remote work study;

          (B)  Review any recent remote work studies done by the counties;

          (C)  Develop and administer a remote work program; and

          (D)  Submit the study to the legislature twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2025; and

     (2)  Appropriate funds.

     SECTION 2.  (a)  The department of human resources development shall:

     (1)  Conduct a statewide remote work study;

     (2)  Review any recent remote work studies done by the counties, such as the August 2021 telework study Work Where You Live by the Oahu metropolitan planning organization; and

     (3)  Develop and administer a remote work program. 

     (b)  The remote work program shall incorporate the outcomes of the remote work study into one- and two-year action plans and include an equity component that ensures that areas benefitting from the remote work program are distributed fairly.  The remote work study shall:

     (1)  Identify state jobs that are suitable to be performed remotely;

     (2)  In coordination with the university of Hawaii economic research organization, identify areas of the State that have a combination of lower housing costs and decreased access to good-paying jobs;

     (3)  In coordination with the Hawaii broadband and digital equity office, analyze the condition of the existing broadband infrastructure in the areas of the State that have a combination of lower housing costs and decreased access to good-paying jobs; and

     (4)  In coordination with the Hawaii broadband and digital equity office and other appropriate departments and agencies, identify other resources needed to support remote work in the State, including but not limited to access to child care, access to remote working equipment, community anchor institutions, technology, and training.

     (c)  The department of human resources development shall submit the remote work study to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2025.

     (d)  The study and remote work program shall be applicable only to residents of the State.

     (e)  For purposes of this section, "remote work" means a job that includes time spent working at a location other than a state office.  "Remote work" includes a job both fully remote jobs and hybrid work options.

     SECTION 3.  In accordance with section 9 of article VII of the Hawaii State Constitution and sections 37-91 and 37-93, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the legislature has determined that the appropriations contained in Act 164, Regular Session of 2023, and this Act will cause the state general fund expenditure ceiling for fiscal year 2024-2025 to be exceeded by $           or       per cent.  This current declaration takes into account general fund appropriations authorized for fiscal year 2024-2025 in Act 164, Regular Session of 2023, and this Act only.  The reasons for exceeding the general fund expenditure ceiling are that:

     (1)  The appropriation made in this Act is necessary to serve the public interest; and

     (2)  The appropriation made in this Act meets the needs addressed by this Act.

     SECTION 4.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $           or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2024-2025 for the establishment of one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) position, who shall be exempt from chapter 76, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to support the development of the remote work program established pursuant to section 2 of this Act.

     The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of human resources development for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 5.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2024.

 

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

 

Report Title:

DHRD; Remote Work Study; Program; Action Plan; Position; Establishment; Report; Expenditure Ceiling; Appropriation

 

Description:

Requires the Department of Human Resources Development to:  (1) conduct a remote work study; (2) review any recent remote work studies done by the counties; (3) develop and administer a remote work program; and (4) submit the study to the Legislature prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2025.  Declares that the general fund expenditure ceiling is exceeded.  Makes an appropriation.

 

 

 

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