HGEA continues to fight for fair compensation on behalf of employees who were exposed to COVID-19. Temporary Hazard Pay (THP) requests and grievances have been filed in all jurisdictions. See below for the status of these cases.
Last Updated June 6, 2025
State Settlement Claim Offer: University of Hawaii, Unit 8
Gov. Josh Green’s administration and the University of Hawaii offered a settlement for our temporary hazard pay claim split into two compensation tiers — $10,000 and $20,000. Voting for this settlement offer was held from April 23-24. A majority of affected members voted to accept the offer.
Payout will be based on days the affected employees physically reported to work during the period of March 4, 2020 to March 25, 2022.
Employees should have received a hazard pay attestation form from their employer with a submission deadline of July 31. If you have any questions, please contact your department designee.
THP payment should begin on Oct. 4 for active employees and Oct. 18 for inactive employees. Employees will receive the second half of their THP award in the spring of 2025.
For more information on the settlement and voting, view Unit 8 settlement FAQs.
State Settlement: Executive Branch, Judiciary, University of Hawaii, Public Charter Schools and Hawaii Health Systems Corp.
Gov. Josh Green’s administration offered HGEA a settlement split into two compensation tiers — $10,000 and $20,000. Ratification of this offer was conducted electronically from April 10-14. A majority of members in all affected jurisdictions voted to accept the offer.
This settlement covers employees who worked during Gov. David Ige’s emergency proclamation from March 4, 2020 to March 25, 2022 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.
Unlike previous arbitrations in other jurisdictions, it is not based on the severity of exposure to the hazard, but rather on total days employees physically reported to work.
State executive branch and Hawaii Health Systems Corp. employees should have received a hazard pay attestation form from their employer with a submission deadline of July 31.
Judiciary and public charter school employees should have received a hazard pay attestation form from their employer with a submission deadline of July 31. If you have questions on the attestation form, please contact your department designee.
THP payment should begin on Oct. 4 for active employees and Oct. 18 for inactive employees. Employees will receive the second half of their THP award in the spring of 2025.
For more information on eligibility and the settlement, view state settlement FAQs
City & County of Honolulu
An initial settlement was reached in 2021 which required employees to file for THP by March 18, 2022. After receiving multiple reports of denials, HGEA consolidated these issues into a class grievance that was filed on March 2, 2023.
This May, the city made settlement offers to three different categories of employees who worked entirely or partially for the City and County of Honolulu during Gov. David Ige’s and the Honolulu Mayor’s emergency proclamations from March 5, 2020 to March 5, 2022. Eligible voters in each category voted to accept their respective settlement offer:
- Units 2, 3, 4 and 13 who filed a timely THP request pursuant to the contract and initial 2021 settlement agreement
- Units 2, 3, 4 and 13 who did not file a THP request by the March 18, 2022 deadline pursuant to the contract and initial 2021 settlement agreement.
- Appealing Non-Filer Status: You have until June 26, 2025 to file an appeal if you disagree with your designation as a “non-filer” and believe you filed a timely temporary hazard pay claim or were told or directed not to file one. See the non-filer FAQ page for more details.
- Unit 15
County of Kauai
An arbitration award and decision for Phase I was issued on Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. Unfortunately, this decision excluded many job classifications from eligibility.
In October 2024, HGEA reached a settlement agreement with the County of Kauai that would ensure all those who reported to work during the pandemic are considered for THP unlike the Phase I arbitration decision. County of Kauai employees in Units 2, 3, 4, 13, 14 and 15 who worked at any time during the period of March 4, 2020 to March 25, 2022 would receive a 15% THP wage differential, and this award would be based on total number of hours worked during that timeframe. Employees voted to ratify this agreement.
See County of Kauai THP Arbitration page for details.
See County of Kauai THP Settlement Agreement for settlement info.
County of Maui
An arbitration decision and award were rendered in favor of HGEA, recognizing that our members were exposed to hazardous working conditions for the entire duration of the Governor’s emergency proclamation.
The county has completed THP payments to all eligible employees.
See County of Maui THP Arbitration page for details.
Department of Education
The arbitrator found in favor of HGEA for the first phase of the THP hearings, recognizing that DOE employees in bargaining units 2, 3, 4, 9 and 13 were exposed to hazardous working conditions for the entire duration of the Governor’s emergency proclamation.
Funding for this award was secured at the Legislature, but the DOE recently offered a settlement alternative to affected employees. A vote on this offer was originally slated for May 30, but was placed on hold as HGEA worked with the DOE on more reasonable workday requirements for the compensation tiers. A revised agreement was finalized in November 2024 and eligible voting employees voted to accept the offer.
HGEA argued for Unit 6 educational officers to be included in this arbitration despite not having an article in their contract for THP. The arbitrator rejected this argument and ruled that it can’t be decided in arbitration. He then returned the grievance to the union and the DOE without a decision or recommendation on its merits. Although we did not prevail in arbitration, we are committed to working with the governor and the superintendent to recognize the need for an equity adjustment for all EOs.
See DOE THP Arbitration page for details.
See Revised DOE THP Settlement Offer page for settlement info.
Hawaii County
In March 2025, Mayor Kimo Alameda announced his intention to honor the temporary hazard pay arbitration award for Hawaii County employees. The county will abide by the amended decision and pay a 15% hazard pay differential to all employees who worked during the two-year period of the pandemic.
Initially, a Phase I arbitration decision and award were rendered in favor of HGEA, acknowledging that employees faced a hazard for the duration of Gov. David Ige’s emergency proclamation from March 4, 2020 to March 25, 2022. We then received an arbitrator’s apparent Phase II decision for THP for Hawaii County employees over the Nov. 30, 2024 weekend, but the document was undated and unsigned. It would have limited your payout to a maximum of six months at the 15% hazard pay differential rate.
We are appreciative of the positive and productive collaboration that we’ve received from Mayor Alameda in resolving this case and for his willingness to honor the amended decision.
As of June 6, the county has confirmed they are targeting the end of this month to make payments to eligible employees. They did not provide exact dates for the payout, but we will update you when more specifics are available.
See Hawaii County Arbitration page for details.
Updates will be made to this page when we receive new information.