The Hawai'i Labor Relations Board yesterday ordered the Lingle administration to meaningfully consult with the Hawai'i Government Employees Association on layoffs but did not grant the union's request to halt the layoffs.

The board, which oversees the state's labor law, gave state department directors until the end of the month to provide the union with the criteria used to select more than 1,100 state workers for layoffs.

James Nicholson, the chairman of the three-member board, set a status conference for Oct. 6 to determine whether there has been meaningful consultation. He said the board would take further action, including possibly granting the union's request to stop layoffs, if the Lingle administration does not engage in consultation.

The layoffs are scheduled to start on Nov. 13.

The board's order requires the Lingle administration to provide the union and the board with the procedures and guidelines followed and the factors and criteria considered when selecting workers for layoffs. Nicholson said disclosing the information would help the union explain to workers why they are on the layoff list and ensure that the state did not unfairly target workers because of their union activity or other discriminatory reason.

State labor law requires the state to consult with public-sector labor unions on all matters affecting employee relations and to seek union input before before making any major policy changes.

"There's no doubt that the impending layoffs of hundreds of bargaining unit members is a matter of such magnitude which requires reasoned consideration and the sharing of information," Nicholson said.

Peter Trask, an attorney for the HGEA, again appealed to the board to halt the layoffs. He said the union wants information on layoff plans before they are ordered, not a description of what happened after the fact.

TAKING ACTION

After the hearing, however, Trask said the board's decision was fair. "I think the board has seen that it's necessary to take some type of affirmative action. If it takes somebody to force the (Lingle administration) forward, then this is it," he said.

Richard Thomason, a deputy attorney general representing the state, questioned why the union was still complaining. "They were requesting the answer to the 'Why me?' question, and that's what the board has given them, so for them to then complain that the board has given them what they wanted doesn't make a whole lot of sense," he said.

Thomason has said that if the board stops the layoffs, the Lingle administration would likely respond with additional layoffs to help with the state's budget deficit.

Gov. Linda Lingle has said that layoffs are necessary to help the state close an estimated $884 million budget deficit through June 2011. The governor ordered the layoffs after her furlough plans were blocked by the unions as unconstitutional in court. She has also warned of a second round of layoffs as contract negotiations with unions drag.

The state, the HGEA and the United Public Workers' public safety unit are in binding arbitration over new contracts. The state is also negotiating with the University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly on a new contract.

The state and the Hawai'i State Teachers Association have agreed to a new contract that calls for 17 furlough days a year for 10-month teachers and 21 furlough days a year for year-round teachers. The two-year contract with teachers does not include layoffs for licensed, tenured teachers.

LINGERING DOUBTS

State lawmakers have held a series of informational briefings on the layoffs and have questioned state department directors on how they made their selections. Lawmakers, for example, have doubted the administration's rationale for laying off agricultural inspectors, most of the state's film office, and the staff at Kulani Correctional Facility on the Big Island.

Department directors, including Ted Liu at the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism and Sandra Lee Kunimoto at the state Department of Agriculture, have told lawmakers they were given cost-saving targets by the administration and then used their discretion in choosing a combination of layoffs and spending restrictions.

Lingle has been critical of the informational briefings, arguing that they have been repetitive and detract from the directors' work while doing nothing to solve the budget deficit. Lawmakers, meanwhile, have been frustrated by a lack of information from the administration about the criteria used and the savings expected from layoffs.

The Lingle administration has not estimated the total cost savings from layoffs because some state workers on the layoff list have bumping rights that allow them to replace less senior workers.

State Senate Vice President Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u), who is leading a Senate assessment of the administration's layoff and furlough plans, said the administration had cooperated to a degree. But he said lawmakers still want to know how the administration made the decisions and could learn from the information provided to the labor relations board and union through yesterday's order.

"We're looking at the effects on the community, the environment and the economy," Kokubun said. "It's not necessarily just about the state budget, and how we balance the budget, but what kind of ramifications that are going to come about from this."