Our Mission
The Hawai'i Injured Workers Association (HIWA) advocates a responsible, ethical and supportive environment for Hawai'i's most valuable resource, our workers. HIWA strives to make our workplaces safer through education, legislation, and improved monitoring and enforcement of workplace safety.
After injury, workers must be treated respectfully. Every effort must be made to allow workers to recover so they can adequately provide for themselves and their families. Workers should expeditiously receive recommended medical care, compensation for lost wages, permanent disability, and disfigurement, as well as vocational rehabilitation services that attempt to assure a pre-injury standard of living.
HIWA’S Creed:
Educate, organize, and employ injured workers to reclaim their dignity and have a voice in the ongoing public debate over workers' compensation reform.
Educate the general public about Hawai'i's workers' compensation system from both a historic and contemporary perspective.
Support efforts that promote a safe and healthy working environment for all of Hawai'i's workers.
Advocate for legislation that safeguards and improves the rights and benefits of injured workers.
Monitor, report, and evaluate elected or appointed government officials on their performance in relation to the interests of injured workers.
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Long Term Goals:
Elect representatives committed to protecting the health, safety and economic security of injured workers.
Convince representatives and employers that increasing workers' compensation costs has more to do with insurance company profiteering than abuses of the system.
Remind representatives of the "historic compromise" between workers and employers which created the Workers' Compensation Law. Workers gave up their right to sue the employer for their injuries in return for a fair and just workers' compensation system.
Urge prosecutors to crack down on rampant "employer fraud" and "uninsured employers", which costs honest employers additional premiums.
Give employers additional incentives to prevent worker injuries, rather than simply pay claims that could have been prevented
Provide permanently disabled workers with job retraining programs so they can reenter the workforce.
