By:  Longoria                                         H.B. No. 1328
       73R4856 PB-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a prohibition of the application of the
    1-3  employment-at-will doctrine to certain employees.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  In this Act:
    1-6              (1)  "Employee" means an individual who is employed by
    1-7  an employer for compensation.
    1-8              (2)  "Employer" means a person that employs one or more
    1-9  employees.
   1-10              (3)  "Person" means an individual, corporation,
   1-11  association, partnership, organization, or other public or private
   1-12  legal entity.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  (a)  An employer may not discharge an employee
   1-14  who has been continuously employed by that employer for at least 10
   1-15  years, in any capacity, since the original date of hire except for
   1-16  cause.
   1-17        (b)  An employer who violates this section is liable for any
   1-18  loss of wages and employer-provided benefits incurred by the
   1-19  employee as a result of the violation.  A person discharged in
   1-20  violation of this section is entitled to reinstatement in the same
   1-21  or an equivalent position of employment with commensurate pay.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-3  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-4  passage, and it is so enacted.