92-07

Posted on Jun 29, 1992 in Formal Opinions

Opinion Letter No. 92-07
June 29, 1992
List of Self-Insured Employers

The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) must make available for public inspection and copying the names of employers that obtained approval to be self-insured under Hawaii’s Workers’ Compensation Law, chapter 386, Hawaii Revised Statutes. Because the employers are business entities and not “natural persons,” they do not have a cognizable personal privacy interest in information concerning the fact of their self-insurance.

The OIP also found that the list of self-insured employers is not commercial or financial information that falls within the UIPA’s “frustration of a legitimate government function” exception because: (1) disclosure would not impair the government’s ability to obtain information from employers that wish to be approved for self-insurance; and (2) the fact that an employer is self-insured is not the type of detailed financial information that would likely cause substantial competitive harm to the self-insured employers.

full text