By Johnson                                            H.B. No. 2344
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the types of damages to be recovered on a claim
    1-3  alleging discrimination by employers in violation of Article 8307c
    1-4  of the Texas Worker's Compensation Act.
    1-5        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-6        SECTION 1.  Article 8307c, Section 2, of the Texas Worker's
    1-7  Compensation Act is amended to read as follows:
    1-8        Sec. 2.  A person who violates any provision of Section 1 of
    1-9  this Act shall be liable for any loss of wages and
   1-10  employer-provided benefits suffered by an employee as a result of
   1-11  the violation, and an employee discharged in violation of the Act
   1-12  shall be entitled to be reinstated to his former position.
   1-13        SECTION 2.  Article 8307c, Section 3, shall be redesignated
   1-14  Section 4.  New Section 3 shall read as follows.
   1-15        In any action or proceeding under this Article, the court in
   1-16  its discretion may allow the prevailing employee a reasonable
   1-17  attorney's fee as part of the costs.
   1-18        SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to a cause of action that
   1-19  accrues on or after the effective date of this Act.  An action that
   1-20  accrues before the effective date of this Act is governed by the
   1-21  law in effect at the time the action accrued, and that law is
   1-22  continued in effect for that purpose.
   1-23        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-1  crowded conditions of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-2  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-3  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-4  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-5  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-6  passage, and it is so enacted.