1. (a) It shall be unlawful for any employees of a public utility to call a strike or go out on strike causing or threatening to cause an interruption of public utility service, or for any public utility to lock out its employees when the action would cause or threaten to cause an interruption of public utility service, except as the action may be taken in compliance with this chapter.
2. (b) It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to instigate, induce, or encourage any other person or persons to engage in any strike or lockout that would cause an interruption of public utility service in violation of this chapter.

3. (c) During the term of any collective bargaining agreement, there shall be no lockout by the public utility and there shall be no strike on the part of any employees covered by the agreement, except where:

   1. (1) A dispute arises under the agreement concerning the interpretation or application of the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, and the agreement contains no procedure for the settlement of the dispute; or

   2. (2) In accordance with the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, the parties undertake negotiations for a new agreement or an amendment of the existing agreement pursuant to specific designation in the agreement of a certain time or period for the negotiations, no agreement has been reached at the expiration of the time or period, and the agreement does not prohibit strikes or lockouts following the negotiation and failure to arrive at agreement;

      provided that the provisions of this chapter for settlement of disputes have first been complied with.

[L 1949, c 146, pt of §1; RL 1955, §91-10; HRS §381-9; am L 2016, c 55, §8]