By Davila H.B. No. 2948 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED 1-1 AN ACT 1-2 relating to restrictions on certain employer-imposed workplace 1-3 language requirements and to employee notification of those 1-4 restrictions and other equal employment opportunity requirements by 1-5 the Commission on Human Rights. 1-6 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: 1-7 SECTION 1. Section 3.02, Commission on Human Rights Act 1-8 (Article 5221k, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended by 1-9 adding Subsection (e) to read as follows: 1-10 (e) The commission shall prepare, in poster format, a notice 1-11 relating to the equal employment opportunity requirements 1-12 established under this Act. The poster must include a statement 1-13 that a language requirement by an employer is a term or condition 1-14 of employment that may violate Section 5.01(b) of this Act. 1-15 SECTION 2. Section 5.01, Commission on Human Rights Act 1-16 (Article 5221k, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read 1-17 as follows: 1-18 Sec. 5.01. Employers. (a) It is an unlawful employment 1-19 practice for an employer: 1-20 (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge an 1-21 individual or otherwise to discriminate against an individual with 1-22 respect to compensation or the terms, conditions, or privileges of 1-23 employment because of race, color, disability, religion, sex, 2-1 national origin, or age; or 2-2 (2) to limit, segregate, or classify an employee or 2-3 applicant for employment in a way that would deprive or tend to 2-4 deprive an individual of employment opportunities or otherwise 2-5 adversely affect the status of an employee because of race, color, 2-6 disability, religion, sex, national origin, or age. 2-7 (b) It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to 2-8 impose language requirements unless the employer can demonstrate 2-9 that the language requirements: 2-10 (1) are directly related to the safe and efficient 2-11 performance of the job; or 2-12 (2) are consistent with business necessity. 2-13 (c) Each employer shall post the notice prepared by the 2-14 commission under Section 3.02(e) of this Act in a conspicuous 2-15 location accessible to all employees in the employer's workplace. 2-16 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995, and 2-17 applies only to a complaint filed with the Commission on Human 2-18 Rights on or after that date. A complaint filed before that date 2-19 is governed by the law in effect on the date that the complaint was 2-20 filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. 2-21 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the 2-22 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an 2-23 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the 2-24 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several 2-25 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.