A majority of HGEA members in state government voted to accept an offer by Gov. Josh Green’s administration to settle the union’s claims to temporary hazard pay.
The roughly 16,000 employees are organized into Units 2, 3, 4, 9, 13 and 14 employed within the executive branch, University of Hawaii, public charter schools, the Judiciary, and the Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
“Our members heroically showed up to work throughout the pandemic putting their own health – as well as that of their loved ones – at substantial risk to keep services running for the public,” said HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira. “From caring for patients in our state hospitals to processing a deluge of unemployment claims, HGEA members went above and beyond, exposing themselves to the virus, all in the name of service to the public.”
The settlement offer is split into two compensation tiers — $10,000 and $20,000. THP compensation will be based on how many days an employee physically reported to work during the period of March 4, 2020 to March 25, 2022.
HGEA continues to work to finalize cases in other jurisdictions. In October 2023, an arbitrator in our case against Kauai County conceded that our members in that jurisdiction faced a hazard. An arbitrator also recently ruled in our favor in our case for hazard pay in Hawaii County. We also recently won our long-standing arbitration on behalf of state Department of Education employees, and we’re currently working with the employer to finalize that case.
