Hawaii Administrative Rules
Title 12 - DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Subtitle 8 - HAWAII OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH DIVISION
Part 1 - GENERAL, LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS
Chapter 57 - DISCRIMINATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES EXERCISING RIGHTS UNDER CHAPTER 396, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES
Subchapter 2 - SPECIFIC PROTECTIONS
Section 12-57-7 - Exercise of any right afforded by section 396-8(e), HRS

(1) Participates as a party in any judicial, quasi-judicial, or administrative enforcement proceeding under section 396-8(e), HRS;

(2) Requests information from HIOSH;

(3) Is interviewed by agents of the director in the course of inspections or Investigations; or

(4) Asserts any right afforded by section 396-8(e), HRS.

(1) There is no right afforded by the law which would entitle employees to walk off the job because of potentially unsafe conditions at the workplace. Hazardous conditions which may be violative of the law will ordinarily be corrected by the employer once brought to the employer's attention. If corrections are not accomplished, or if there is a dispute about the existence of a hazard, the employee will normally have an opportunity to request an inspection of the workplace pursuant to section 396-8(b), HRS, or to seek the assistance of other public agencies which have responsibility in the field of safety and health. Under such circumstances, therefore, an employer would not ordinarily be in violation of section 396-8(e), HRS, by taking action to discipline an employee for walking off the job because of alleged safety or health hazards.

(2) However, occasions might arise when an employee is confronted with a choice between not performing assigned tasks or subjecting themseves to serious injury or death arising from a hazardous condition at the workplace. If the employee, with no reasonable alternative, refuses in good faith to be exposed to the dangerous condition, that employee would be protected against subsequent discrimination. The condition causing the employee's apprehension of death or injury must be of such a nature that a reasonable person, under the circumstances then confronting the employee, would conclude that there is a real danger of death or serious injury and that there is insufficient time, due to the urgency of the situation, to eliminate the danger through resort to regular statutory enforcement channels. In addition, under such circumstances, the employee, where possible, must also have sought from the employer, and had been unable to obtain, a correction of the dangerous condition.