§377-1  Definitions.  When used in thischapter:

(1)  "Person" includes one or moreindividuals, partnerships, associations, corporations, legal representatives,trustees, or receivers.

(2)  "Employer" means a person who engagesthe services of an employee, and includes any person acting on behalf of anemployer, but shall not include the State or any political subdivision thereof,or any labor organization or anyone acting in behalf of such organization otherthan when it is acting as an employer in fact.

(3)  "Employee" includes any person, otherthan an independent contractor, working for another for hire in the State, andshall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer unless thecontext clearly indicates otherwise; and includes any individual whose work hasceased solely as a consequence of or in connection with any current labordispute or because of any unfair labor practice on the part of an employer and(A) who has not refused or failed to return to work upon the final dispositionof a labor dispute or a charge of an unfair labor practice by a tribunal havingcompetent jurisdiction of the same or whose jurisdiction was accepted by theemployee or the employee's representative, (B) who has not been found to becommitting or a party to any unfair labor practice hereunder, (C) who has notobtained regular and substantially equivalent employment elsewhere, or (D) whohas not been absent from the individual's employment for a substantial periodof time during which reasonable expectancy of settlement has ceased (except byan employer's unlawful refusal to bargain) and whose place has been filled byanother engaged in the regular manner for an indefinite or protracted periodand not merely for the duration of a strike or lockout; but shall not includeany individual employed in the domestic service of a family or person at thefamily's or person's home or any individual employed by the individual's parentor spouse, or any person employed in an executive or supervisory capacity, orany individual employed by any employer employing less than two individuals, orany individual subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Railway Labor Act orthe National Labor Relations Act, as amended from time to time; provided thatthe term "employee" includes any individual subject to thejurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Act, as amended from time to time,but over whom the National Labor Relations Board has declined to exercisejurisdiction or has indicated by its decisions and policies that it will notassume jurisdiction.

(4)  "Representative" includes any personchosen by an employee to represent the employee.

(5)  "Collective bargaining" is thenegotiating by an employer and a majority of the employer's employees in acollective bargaining unit (or their representatives) concerning representationor terms and conditions of employment of such employees in a mutually genuineeffort to reach an agreement with reference to the subject under negotiation.

(6)  "Collective bargaining unit" means allof the employees of one employer (employed within the State), except that wherethe board has determined and certified that such employees engaged in a singlecraft, division, department, or plant as provided in section 377-5(b)constitute a separate bargaining unit they shall be so considered.  Two or morecollective bargaining units may bargain collectively through the samerepresentative where a majority of the employees or each separate unit havevoted by secret ballot as provided in section 377-5(c) so to do.

(7)  "Unfair labor practice" means anyunfair labor practice as defined in sections 377-6 to 377-8.

(8)  "Labor dispute" includes anycontroversy concerning terms, tenure or conditions of employment, or concerningthe association or representation of persons in negotiating, fixing,maintaining, changing, or seeking to arrange terms or conditions of employment,regardless of whether the disputants stand in the proximate relation ofemployer and employee.

(9)  "All union agreement" means anagreement between an employer and the representative of the employer'semployees in a collective bargaining unit whereby all of the employees in suchunit are required to be members of a single labor organization.

(10)  "Board" means the Hawaii laborrelations board, provided for by sections 26-20, 89-5, and 377-2.

(11)  "Election" means a proceeding in whichthe employees in a collective bargaining unit cast a secret ballot forcollective bargaining representatives or for any other purpose specified inthis chapter and shall include elections conducted by the board, or, unless thecontext clearly indicates otherwise, by any tribunal having competentjurisdiction or whose jurisdiction was accepted by the parties.

(12)  "Secondary boycott" includes combiningor conspiring to cause or threaten to cause injury to one with whom no labordispute exists, whether by (A) withholding patronage, labor, or otherbeneficial business intercourse, (B) picketing, (C) refusing to handle,install, use, or work on particular materials, equipment, or supplies, or (D)by any other unlawful means, in order to bring one against one's will into aconcerted plan to coerce or inflict damage upon another.

(13)  "Person employed in an executive orsupervisory capacity" means any employee who has the authority to hire orfire other employees or whose suggestions and recommendations as to hiring orfiring and as to the advancement, promotion, or demotion of other employeeswill be given particular weight; but shall not mean registered nurses whosecompensation is determined on an hourly basis or who are subject to supervisionby any person other than the person in charge of all registered nurses at theemployer's premises. [L 1945, c 250, §3; am L 1955, c 11, §1; RL 1955, §90-2;am L 1961, c 31, §1; am L 1963, c 53, §1; am L 1965, c 244, §1; am L 1967, c253, §2; HRS §377-1; am L 1971, c 91, §1; am L 1985, c 251, §12; gen ch 1985]

 

Case Notes

 

  Employee:  individual subject to N.L.R.A. excluded, 49 H.426, 428, 421 P.2d 294; applies to employees of East-West Center, 5 H. App. 37,677 P.2d 477.