Cost, scope of COVID hazard pay still in limbo

HONOLULU (KHON2) — Thousands of public workers statewide have not been compensated for hazard pay their unions say they are entitled to, for working during 2 years under COVID emergency orders.

A formal arbitration award is expected soon for Maui County staff, which could set the tone for what’s ahead on other islands and for state workers.

When the state went into COVID lockdown in 2020, not everybody got to stay home. Many private- and public-sector workers had to keep at their jobs and risk running into the virus.

“We have to remember, while we look at COVID today as the bad flu, get a shot, you should be okay, the picture was very different in early 2020,” said Randy Perreira, executive director of HGEA, “and I think we need to use that lens when you are judging the question of providing a hazard differential to people.

Yet, more than two years later, most people have not been paid any extra for working frontline jobs.

“At the start of the pandemic, we had made requests of every jurisdiction where employees were required to continue going into work every day to address the issue of whether or not they were entitled to hazard pay,” Perreira said. “Each employer followed their own process for doing so, and eventually all of the employers denied the requests, which led us to file grievances with each separate jurisdiction.”

A big arbitration decision in Maui County is expected any day now, which could secure hazard pay for around 1,300 HGEA members for a 15 to 25 percent bump for days worked at-risk.

UPW on Maui recently settled a similar matter for their members at 18 months of hazard pay.

“We applaud Mayor (Mike) Victorino for stepping up and doing the right thing for employees who had no choice but to report to work to continue providing the services essential to the functioning of our state and communities,” said Kalani Werner, UPW state director.

HGEA is pushing for a longer duration – two years – whereas the county took the position of six months in arbitration.

“For us it’s for the entire period of the emergency proclamation,” Perreira said. “If the governor saw fit to make sure that we in Hawai’i we’re living under these emergency rules [for two years] then we feel that was a duration of the hazard.”

Maui is the farthest along in resolving the matter with HGEA — the state’s largest public worker union — but what’s not yet known is how many people who work for other counties and the state will get paid, how much, and when if ever.

“Grievances were filed in all nine of the jurisdictions the United Public Workers represents on behalf of approximately 10,000 members,” Werner said. “We welcome those employers to join us at the table and negotiate similar settlements. As with all grievances, we hope to settle these issues informally if possible. However, where we cannot reach a settlement, we, as the exclusive representative for Bargaining Units 01 and 10, are prepared to pursue those grievances through the arbitration process.”

The police union SHOPO has grievances in various stages of the process.

There is a hearing scheduled on Kauai’s HGEA matter early next year. A Kauai County spokesperson told KHON: “Kauai County has not reached an agreement on hazard pay for public workers and therefore has not set aside any funds for payment.”

There is no date yet for a Hawai’i County hearing. A Hawai’i County spokesperson said: “The County of Hawai’i remains actively engaged in dialogue on this issue, and is unable to comment on the specifics at this time. However, we look forward to sharing the results of our conversations when a way forward is decided.”

Honolulu has a lot of roadblocks

“The City and County of Honolulu at the moment is attempting to treat each case individually,” Perreira said. “We do hope that they’ll come around and agreed to consolidate and facilitate the resolution of this a lot sooner.”

Honolulu County’s corporation counsel said: “The City intends to defend against claims that the City’s workplace was hazardous during the COVID-19 pandemic for entire classes of employees, particularly because there already is an established hazard pay claims process and the City went to great lengths to protect its employees.  The very low number of COVID-19 infections of City employees who contracted the virus while at work is evidence of the effectiveness of the City’s COVID-19 protection practices.”

As for state workers?

“The state is the big elephant in the room,” Perreira said. “But we had no expectation that the current administration would deal with this. They’re undoubtedly going to punt to the next administration to address it.”

One of the biggest state departments is education. HSTA’s spokesperson said the teacher’s union asked for hazard pay, but it’s not outlined in their contracts so the request was denied and they can’t take it to arbitration like other unions.

HGEA, which has non-teaching staff across public schools, has arbitration hearings with the doe next month.

“The Department has asked the unions for consideration of additional time so that the state’s new administration can be included in the discussion of this important issue,” a DOE spokesperson said.

Unions say the feds have already given the state and county money to cover the cost.

“It’s specifically identified in the bill that Congress passed that hazard pay is one of the purposes for them giving such ARPA funds to each jurisdiction,” Perreira said. “So we’re not looking and it’s not an attempt really to break the bank.”