The Hawaii Labor Practices Act prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals based on race, religion, national origin, color, ancestry, sex (including gender identity or expression), sexual orientation, age, marital status, mental or physical disability, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related. This is in addition to the federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on pregnancy (the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)), age (over 40, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)), and disability (the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)). The state of Hawaii also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation. Discrimination can occur in any aspect of an individual's employment, including hiring, promotion, salary, work environment, training, discipline, and dismissal.
Any release or agreement that attempts to waive an employee's rights under the Fair Labor Practices Act is unenforceable. These provisions do not apply to negotiated settlement agreements that resolve claims under the Fair Labor Practices Act that employees brought before a court, administrative agency, or alternative dispute resolution forum or through their employer's internal complaint process. Settlement agreements are considered negotiated if they are voluntary, deliberate, and informed; they provide valuable consideration to employees; and employees receive notice and the opportunity to hire an attorney or are represented by an attorney. Employers and their employees cannot help, incite, compel, or coerce illegal discriminatory acts; obstruct or prevent anyone from complying with the Fair Labor Practices Act or related orders; or directly or indirectly attempt to commit such acts.
Employers can comply with the terms of genuine seniority systems, benefit plans for bona fide employees (such as retirement, pension, or insurance plans), or systems that measure income based on quantity or quality of production if these terms are not designed, intended, or used to evade the Fair Labor Practices Act. However, these employee benefit plans or systems that measure income cannot be used to justify the failure to hire candidates based on factors unrelated to their ability to perform work. Nor can these seniority systems, employee benefit plans, or systems that measure income be used to justify involuntary retirement of employees based on factors unrelated to their ability to perform work. These provisions do not prohibit employers from rejecting candidates or dismissing employees who fail to meet their employment requirements in good faith.
The Fair Labor Practices Act does not affect the terms or conditions of genuine employer-provided retirement, pension, employment benefits, or insurance plans that are not intended to circumvent the purpose of the law; however, this exception does not allow any plan for employees to establish a maximum age requirement for hiring or a mandatory retirement age. The law also does not affect the application of federal or Hawaiian safety regulations or regulations to employment. Nor can employers help, incite, compel, or coerce anyone into violating the Fair Labor Practices Act. Employers may apply different compensation standards or terms, conditions, and privileges of employment in accordance with genuine systems of seniority or merit, in accordance with systems that measure earnings by quantity or quality of production, or to employees who work in different locations if these differences are not the result of an intent to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion religion, national origin national origin, sex sex or age (40 years or older), or the disability of a qualified person.
They can also meet the terms of genuine seniority systems or employee benefit plans such as retirement pension and insurance plans which are not a subterfuge to evade the Fair Labor Practices Act; however these plans don't excuse their failure to hire candidates. Employers can make hiring decisions and decisions to admit participants in apprenticeships and other training programs based on sex sex, age age, religion religion, national origin national origin, and disability if any of these factors is a BFOQ that is reasonably necessary for normal business operations. Employers and their employees may not help incite compel coerce anyone into committing unlawful discriminatory acts directly or indirectly attempt to commit unlawful discriminatory acts; nor obstruct prevent anyone from complying with the Fair Labor Practices Act and any order issued under it. Discrimination provisions do not apply to genuine seniority systems that require differences in areas such as wages hiring layoffs vacation credit and work assignments if such systems are not intended to evade the Fair Labor Practices Act.
Nor is employing one person in place of another evidence of unfair discriminatory practices in itself. Reasonable demands for a position based on age marital status sex are interpreted according to the same legal rules as bona fide professional qualifications under the federal Civil Rights Act (42 U S C). Reasonable demands for a position based on physical mental disability are interpreted according to same legal standards as determining if a person is a “qualified person with a disability” under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U S C). These exceptions to the Fair Labor Practices Act are affirmative defenses and if employers claim them they have burden of proving that exceptions apply.
Employers and other individuals may not deliberately obstruct prevent anyone from complying with Fair Labor Practices Act nor resist hinder prevent interfere with New Mexico Human Rights Commission any members staff representatives commission performance duties under Fair Labor Practices Act. Employers their employees cannot help incite compel coerce directly indirectly try commit unlawful discriminatory practices. Seniority systems adopted intentionally discriminatory purposes violate Fair Labor Practices Act when system adopted employees become subject.
