## Facts

- The County owned and operated two landfills (Kealakehe and Hilo) staffed by 38 workers (equipment operators, landfill attendants, and transfer station attendants) recruited and employed through the civil service merit system.
- The County decided to build a new landfill at Puʻuanahulu and contracted with Waste Management of Hawaiʻi, Inc. (WMI) to design, construct, and operate the facility.
- The contract required WMI to operate Puʻuanahulu using private employees rather than County civil service employees in the bargaining unit represented by United Public Workers (UPW).
- UPW asserted the Puʻuanahulu positions were essentially the same as traditional landfill positions historically covered by civil service and that contracting out unlawfully displaced the merit-based civil service system.
- UPW also alleged the County failed to bargain over mandatory subjects by privatizing operations without negotiating with the union.

## Issues

1. Whether contracting with a private company to operate the Puʻuanahulu landfill unlawfully privatized positions that should be within the County civil service under the Hawaiʻi Constitution, civil service statutes, and the merit principle.
2. Whether the County committed a prohibited practice under public-sector labor law by privatizing landfill operations without engaging in mandatory negotiations with UPW.
3. If civil service laws were violated, whether the WMI contract was void as against public policy and what equitable relief was appropriate.

## Decision

- The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court held the County violated civil service laws and the merit principle by contracting for private operation of work customarily and historically performed by civil servants in classified positions.
- The court held the County did not violate collective bargaining laws; the decision to contract out landfill operations was treated as a management/policy decision rather than a mandatory subject of bargaining.
- In the civil action, the court vacated summary judgment for the County and remanded with instructions to enter summary judgment for UPW, issue declaratory relief, and order injunctive relief transferring operations from WMI to the County as quickly as practicable consistent with public interest concerns.
- In the labor board appeal, the court affirmed the judgment upholding the Hawaiʻi Labor Relations Board’s rejection of UPW’s prohibited practice complaint.
- The WMI contract was declared void as against public policy to the extent it provided for private operation of the Puʻuanahulu landfill.

## Legal Principles

- Hawaiʻi’s constitutional civil service provision and related statutes embody a merit principle favoring classified civil service coverage for government positions, with exemptions narrowly construed.
- A public employer may not evade civil service and merit requirements by contracting out functions that are customarily and historically performed by civil servants in positions properly within the classified service, absent statutory authority or a valid exemption.
- A contract that contravenes the civil service system and merit principle is unenforceable as against public policy to the extent of the unlawful privatization.
- Under Hawaiʻi public-sector labor law, a governmental decision to privatize or contract out may be treated as a management/policy decision not subject to mandatory bargaining, even if the decision has effects on bargaining-unit employees.
- Courts may grant declaratory and injunctive relief to restore unlawfully privatized public operations to compliant civil service staffing, structured to account for practical implementation and public interest constraints.

## Conclusion

The court invalidated the County’s privatization of Puʻuanahulu landfill operations as inconsistent with Hawaiʻi’s civil service merit system and ordered a supervised transition back to County operation, while separately holding that the County’s decision to contract out did not, on these facts, constitute a collective bargaining violation.


Konno v. County of Haw., 85 Haw. 61, 937 P.2d 397 (Haw. 1997)