By Coleman                                            H.B. No. 1978
       74R6566 JMM-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the application of certain laws prohibiting employment
    1-3  discrimination.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 21.002, Labor Code, is amended by adding
    1-6  Subdivision  (14) to read as follows:
    1-7              (14)  "Agent" means a person who acts for or subject to
    1-8  the control of another under an express or implied contract or
    1-9  agreement or under law.
   1-10        SECTION 2.  Subchapter C, Chapter 21, Labor Code, is amended
   1-11  by adding Section 21.130 to read as follows:
   1-12        Sec. 21.130.  UNDUE HARDSHIP.  (a)  For the purposes of the
   1-13  defense of undue hardship in a complaint or allegation of
   1-14  discrimination based on disability, an undue hardship requires a
   1-15  demonstration of suffering or privation, economic or otherwise,
   1-16  that is an excessive burden, impairment, or hindrance to the
   1-17  operation or purposes of the person who raises the defense.
   1-18        (b)  A person who raises the defense of undue hardship bears
   1-19  the burden of establishing that an undue hardship exists in
   1-20  relation to the size, facility, budget, type of operation, and cost
   1-21  of the accommodation.
   1-22        (c)  A person who requests a reasonable accommodation must be
   1-23  allowed to provide the person's own accommodation or to pay part of
   1-24  the cost of the accommodation that results in the claimed undue
    2-1  hardship.
    2-2        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and
    2-3  applies only to a cause of action that arises on or after that
    2-4  date.  A cause of action that arises before the effective date of
    2-5  this Act is governed by the law in effect at the time the cause of
    2-6  action arose, and the former law is continued in effect for that
    2-7  purpose.
    2-8        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-9  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-10  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-11  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-12  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.