By McCall H.B. No. 40
75R1592 PB-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the use of certain information regarding a current or
1-3 former employee.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Title 3, Labor Code, is amended by adding Chapter
1-6 103 to read as follows:
1-7 CHAPTER 103. DISCLOSURE BY EMPLOYER OF INFORMATION REGARDING
1-8 CERTAIN EMPLOYEES OR FORMER EMPLOYEES
1-9 Sec. 103.001. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
1-10 (1) "Employee" means a person who performs services
1-11 for an employer, whether or not for compensation.
1-12 (2) "Employer" means a person who has one or more
1-13 employees or other individuals who perform services under a
1-14 contract of hire or service, whether expressed or implied, or oral
1-15 or written.
1-16 (3) "Job performance" means the manner in which an
1-17 employee performs the duties and responsibilities of a position of
1-18 employment and includes an analysis of the employee's attendance
1-19 at work, attitude toward the job, effort, knowledge, and skills, as
1-20 exemplified through evaluations, awards, demotions, promotions,
1-21 disciplinary actions, and other analogous personnel actions.
1-22 (4) "Prospective employee" means any person who has
1-23 made an application, either oral or written, or has sent a resume
1-24 or other correspondence indicating an interest in employment.
2-1 (5) "Prospective employer" means an employer to whom a
2-2 prospective employee has made an application, either oral or
2-3 written, or sent a resume or other correspondence expressing an
2-4 interest in employment.
2-5 Sec. 103.002. AUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE. An employer may
2-6 disclose information about a current or former employee's job
2-7 performance to a prospective employer of the current or former
2-8 employee on the request of the prospective employer or the
2-9 employee.
2-10 Sec. 103.003. INFORMATION PROVIDED TO APPLICANT FOR
2-11 EMPLOYMENT. (a) On receipt of a written request by an applicant
2-12 for employment, a prospective employer shall provide to the
2-13 applicant, not later than the 10th day after the date on which the
2-14 request is received by the employer, copies of all written
2-15 communications from current and former employers of the applicant
2-16 that may reasonably be believed to affect the applicant's
2-17 possibility of employment with the prospective employer.
2-18 (b) An applicant for employment must make a request under
2-19 Subsection (a) not later than the 30th day after the date on which
2-20 the applicant completes the application process required by the
2-21 prospective employer.
2-22 Sec. 103.004. IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY; EMPLOYER
2-23 REPRESENTATIVES. (a) An employer who discloses information about
2-24 a current or former employee is immune from civil liability for
2-25 that disclosure or any damages proximately caused by that
2-26 disclosure unless it is proven by clear and convincing evidence
2-27 that the information disclosed was known by that employer to be
3-1 false at the time the disclosure was made.
3-2 (b) This chapter applies to a managerial employee or other
3-3 representative of the employer who is authorized to provide and who
3-4 provides information in accordance with this chapter in the same
3-5 manner that it applies to an employer.
3-6 Sec. 103.005. EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE. This chapter does not
3-7 require an employer to provide an employment reference to or about
3-8 a current or former employee.
3-9 SECTION 2. Chapter 103, Labor Code, as added by this Act,
3-10 applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after the
3-11 effective date of this Act. A cause of action that accrues before
3-12 that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately before
3-13 the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect
3-14 for that purpose.
3-15 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
3-16 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-17 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-18 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-19 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-20 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.