Hawaii
Thousands of Hawaii School Employees To Get Up To 25% In Pandemic Hazard Pay
An arbitration decision has determined public school employees in five bargaining units of the state’s largest union are entitled to back pay of up to 25% of their total salaries for as much as two years, according to the state’s largest union.
The Hawaii Government Employees Association said the decision covers up to 7,800 Department of Education employees, including school nurses, office employees, and classroom educational assistants.
“Those working in the DOE were some of the most exposed among public service employees, putting their own health – as well as that of their loved ones – at substantial risk to keep services running in Hawaii’s schools,” HGEA Executive Director Randy Perreira said Tuesday in a written statement.
Arbitrators considering the hazard pay issue have “thus far have been unanimous: our members faced severe hazards over the course of the pandemic to sustain government operations, and they deserve compensation,” Perreira said in the statement.
The decision will not apply to public school teachers because the Hawaii State Teachers Association does not have hazard pay provisions in its contract. DOE did not respond to a request for comment.
The award is expected to complicate the budget picture at the state and county levels, and Perreira said in an interview he expects DOE will need to ask the Legislature for extra funding to cover the cost of the award.
HGEA and other unions are in similar negotiations with the City and County of Honolulu and the Big Island.
House Speaker Scott Saiki said Tuesday he has not yet seen the arbitration decision, but “this was not really anticipated as we entered the legislative session, so now we’ll have to go back to the drawing board when it comes to approving a balanced budget.”
HGEA has language in its contracts calling for hazard pay of 15% or 25%, depending on the severity of the hazard. Perreira has said the Covid-19 pandemic is the first time that contract language has been applied to government employees statewide.
The union estimated the latest arbitration decision may require the state to pay up to $150 million in back hazard pay for the DOE workers, but Perreira said a more precise calculation will have to come from the DOE.
He said the $150 million estimate assumes all 7,800 of the employees covered by the award will get at least some back hazard pay.
State Budget Director Luis Salaveria also deferred to the DOE, saying he has not yet seen the decision and could not estimate the total cost.
State House Finance Committee Chairman Kyle Yamashita said in a written statement that Gov. Josh Green’s administration is “still working on this.”
“We’re still waiting for details that will give us a better understanding of how to proceed,” Yamashita wrote. But the impact on the budget will likely be substantial.
Republican House Minority Leader Lauren Matsumoto said the hazard pay issue will “cost the state and the city a lot of money, but it’s important that we honor the contracts that we put into place. I don’t know if there’s any way around that.”
The template for settlements and awards on hazard pay is generally expected to follow HGEA’s arbitration award on Maui in 2022.
That decision confirmed the pandemic qualified as a “hazard” under the HGEA contract and determined more than 1,300 employees were entitled to back pay for the first two years of the pandemic. Maui Count employees began receiving hazard compensation payouts at the end of 2022.
Another decision on Kauai also concluded HGEA members there had faced a hazard and therefore qualified for hazard pay by contract, but the union said a follow-up case will be necessary to determine exactly who qualifies for payments.
Arbitration proceedings or negotiations are also underway with Hawaii County and Honolulu, and the unions involved include HGEA, the United Public Workers union and the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers.
The DOE arbitration decision “is a clear signal to the state and counties that it’s time to get serious about how they will cover the hefty price tag of THP (temporary hazard pay) payouts,” Perreira said in the statement.
According to HGEA, the DOE arbitration decision covers the period from March 4, 2020, to March 25, 2022, when then-Gov. David Ige’s pandemic emergency proclamations were in effect.
The hazard pay will not apply to periods when employees are teleworking, on leave, or absent from the work sites. However, it does apply to some jobs that may not usually be considered to be public-facing.
Perreira said office assistants, clerks, secretaries and others continued to directly serve the community through food distribution programs that operated daily from the schools.
“That was where the most public contact took place, the food pickups,” he said. “It was an all-hands-on-deck thing.”
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The demolition of Aloha Stadium on Oahu took a big step forward Thursday with the first section of seating pulled down from the steel structure.
Half of the elevated deck-level seating on the stadium’s makai side was severed and toppled backward as part of demolition work that began in February.
The other half of the upper makai-side seating is slated to come down Tuesday, followed by similar sections on the mauka side and both end zones, though the concrete foundations for lower-level end-zone seating are being preserved for a new, smaller stadium to rise on the same site.
A private partnership, Aloha Halawa District Partners, led by local developer Stanford Carr, is replacing the 50,000-seat Aloha Stadium, which opened in 1975 and was shuttered in 2020, with a new stadium featuring up to 31,000 seats.
AHDP is using $350 million of state funding toward the cost of the new stadium, which could be $475 million or more, and will operate and maintain the facility on state land for 30 years with a land lease.
The development team also is to redevelop much of the 98-acre stadium property dominated by parking lots with a new mixed-use community that includes at least 4,100 residences, two hotels, an office tower, retail, entertainment attractions and open spaces expected to be delivered in phases over 25 years and costing close to or more than $5 billion or $6 billion.
Earlier parts of stadium demolition work led by Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. included removing four covered multistory spiral walkways leading to the upper level from the ground, and concourse bridges.
Demolishing the stadium is projected to be done by August, according to Carr.
Building the new facility is expected to be finished in 2029.
Hawaii
This Airbnb Tiny Home Sits on a Lava Field in Hawaii With Unbeatable Night Sky Views—and It’s a Guest Favorite
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/tal-airbnb-one-off-tout-1465b3bde0864117b43761b0d1dd346e.jpg?ssl=1 "This Airbnb Tiny Home Sits on a Lava Field in Hawaii With Unbeatable Night Sky Views—and It’s a Guest Favorite")
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The team behind a popular Hawaii-based home renovation show is now facing legal troubles after airing content that shouldn’t have been released, according to the state.
Hawaii’s Attorney General is now involved after HGTV’s ‘Renovation Aloha’ showed uncensored images of apparent ancient skeletal remains that were discovered at a Hilo property.
In a now-deleted clip on social media, Kamohai and Tristyn Kalama, along with the production team, discovered a cave beneath a Hilo property where they found the remains deep inside.
Video documented their shock when it was found, with the hosts saying, “There’s bones back here. I got to get out of here. Are you fricken serious? I’m serious dude. Is that a skull?”
Tristyn was seen standing further back, saying “This is terrifying. I’m at my stopping point” before leaving.
Hawaii News Now is not showing the bones, but confirmed with HGTV the episode was filmed in December 2025.
Video didn’t show them touching or moving the remains, and HGTV said authorities were notified after the discovery, the property was not developed, and the site was later blessed.
At the time, police said no crime was committed, and the state AG obtained a TRO to prevent the broadcast of the images in accordance with state law.
However this week, uncensored video of the bones was posted online by the Kalamas and HGTV, and included in the episode, triggering a quick rebuke from the community.
“We don’t kaula’i iwi. We do not lay our bones out in the sun to expose him in this manner,” former Oahu Island Burial Council Chair Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu said.
She also said the release of the images was “extremely disappointing,” saying the damage was already done.
“It is irrelevant that bones were not moved. It is irrelevant that they were not disturbed, per se, because somebody didn’t touch them — but you went into their space and that space becomes kapu space once they have transitioned over to po. And when you do that, we honor that. We don’t disturb them,” Wong-Kalu added.
The AG said they took immediate legal action to prevent the unlawful broadcast of images, pointing to a TRO issued prior to the episode’s release. They also said, “We are aware that the segment aired notwithstanding the court’s order, and we take this matter very seriously. The Department will pursue additional action as necessary.”
Court Documents revealed the Kalamas and producers of the show are now facing four counts for allegedly breaking Iwi Kupuna protection rules.
“If that were our grandparent, would we want them, after they have physically transitioned to po, would we want to share our family in this manner? I don’t think so,” Wong-Kalu added.
HGTV said in a statement, “We take the concerns raised by the community very seriously and are committed to ensuring our programming is respectful and appropriate. We apologize to anyone who found any part of the episode offensive, that was not HGTV’s intention.”
They also confirmed the original episode was removed, and re-edited without the bones included.
Through our communication with the HGTV spokesperson, Hawaii News Now offered the Kalamas a chance to respond directly, but they did not. They did however take to Instagram to address the episode, saying they followed the protocols they knew, and never intended to build there. They stressed their respect for Hawaiian culture and practices.
The investigation remains active.
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.
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