The Hale Koa Hotel has been ordered to pay union attorney fees and back pay in the case of Bill Kearsley, a lifeguard and shop steward at the hotel who won a discrimination suit against the hotel, union officials said.

According to Unite Here Local 5, labor arbitrator Tom Angelo ordered the hotel to reimburse the hotel workers’ union and the law office of Smith Himmelman more than $125,000 “for their unlawful discrimination and termination of a lifeguard for engaging in protected union and Equal Employment Opportunity activities.”
In 2005, Kearsley developed melanoma, an on-the-job occupational injury, and was terminated. He filed a grievance that was resolved in his favor and the arbitrator ordered him reinstated.