Hawaii To Pay Government Workers Up To $20K Each For Hazardous Work During Pandemic
Two-tiered settlement with the Green administration awards government employees back pay of either $10,000 or $20,000, depending on how many days they worked.
Thousands of state employees will receive hefty checks for back hazard pay for work they did during the pandemic under a settlement offered by Gov. Josh Green’s administration to the state’s largest union.
Members of the Hawaii Government Employees Association wrapped up voting on the proposed settlement on Sunday, with the union reporting 88% of its members who participated backed the new agreement.
The tentative settlement covers about 16,000 state workers represented by HGEA. It covers employees with the state executive branch, University of Hawaii, public charter schools, the state Judiciary, and the Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the latest hazard pay settlement applies to both state and county employees. The new settlement applies only to state employees.
It provides for payments of $20,000 to public employees who physically reported to work on at least 420 days or more from March 4, 2020 to March 25, 2022.
Public employees who physically reported to work fewer than 420 days during that period and also worked from home are eligible for $10,000 payments, according to a brief description of the settlement distributed to HGEA members on Monday.
HGEA and the United Public Workers union have been bargaining and battling in arbitration proceedings to enforce hazard pay provisions that have been in their contracts for years, but were never before applied to so many workers.
It was not immediately clear how much the new settlement will cost the state, but lawmakers have been advancing bills that can be used as appropriation vehicles to pay the union settlements.
HGEA won a separate arbitration decision in January that awarded pandemic hazard pay for about 7,800 public school employees other than teachers, and the union estimated at the time that case could cost the state $150 million in back pay.
Hawaii County officials have estimated that resolving hazard pay claims on the Big Island could cost the county as much as $50 million, and an agreement reached in February that provided for hazard pay for police officers on Maui cost an estimated $13 million.
Honolulu Managing Director Mike Formby said in a written statement Monday the city has no estimate yet of how much the hazard pay claims will cost.
He said Honolulu officials have taken steps to prepare for potential hazard pay costs of as much as $100 million, but said the city may need to structure the payout over two fiscal years.
“Our commitment is to be fair with our essential workers while honoring our obligation to the taxpayers to exercise fiscal prudence,” he said in the statement.
The new HGEA agreement covers Unit 2, which includes blue-collar supervisory employees; Unit 3, which includes non-supervisory white-collar workers; Unit 4, which is white-collar supervisory employees; Unit 9, which is made up of nurses in state medical and correctional settings; Unit 13, which includes professional or scientific employees; and Unit 14, which is law enforcement workers including state sheriff’s deputies.
Voting by union members on the proposed hazard pay agreement began on Wednesday and ended Sunday afternoon.
A spokesman for HGEA declined to discuss the agreement until it is finalized.
