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The penalties for workers’ compensation, temporary disability insurance and prevailing wages violations have increased under Acts 187 and 192, which Gov. David Ige signed into law on July 1.
The new laws increase penalties for workers’ compensation insurance to $100 per employee per day from $10 per employee per day, the first increase in 28 years. The penalty for noncompliance with maintaining temporary disability insurance increased to $100 per employee per day from $1 per employee per day. TDI penalties had not changed since they were first established 47 years ago.
Under Act 192, the penalties for violations of Hawaii’s prevailing wage laws on public construction projects are changed to 25 percent from 10 percent of the amount of back wages due or $250 per offense for a first offense; to $500 from $100 or the equivalent of the back wages due for a second offense within two years; and for a third offense within three years of the second violation, from $200 or the amount of back wages to two times the amount of back wages or $1,000 per offense and suspension from any new public works project for three years.
Act 187 excludes some employers from having to provide TDI for themselves if they perform services for their own corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, or sole proprietorship.
“DLIR supported the substantial increase in penalties to serve as a deterrent to help enforce the law,” Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Director Linda Chu Takayama said Thursday in a news release. “It also makes for a more level playing field for law-abiding employers who pay their fair share and provide the statutory benefits to their workers.”
Recently, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced it was increasing its maximum penalties, last adjusted in 1990, by 78 percent. It is requiring state agencies, such as Hawaii’s HIOSH, to adopt maximum penalty levels that are at least as effective as the federal one. The DLIR plans to submit a proposal to do so in the next session of the Legislature.