75R12742 E                           

         By Chavez, Flores                                     H.B. No. 1503

         Substitute the following for H.B. No. 1503:

         By Lewis of Orange                                C.S.H.B. No. 1503

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to accommodating a municipal or county employee with a

 1-3     partial disability related to pregnancy.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Chapter 180, Local Government Code, is amended by

 1-6     adding Section 180.004 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 180.004.  ACCOMMODATION OF PREGNANT EMPLOYEE.  (a)  A

 1-8     municipality or county, in accordance with Section 21.106, Labor

 1-9     Code, shall treat an employee affected by pregnancy in the same

1-10     manner as another individual not affected by pregnancy but similar

1-11     in the individual's ability or inability to work.

1-12           (b)  A municipality or county may provide reasonable

1-13     employment accommodation to a pregnant employee in the same manner

1-14     as another individual who is temporarily disabled.  In

1-15     accommodating a pregnant employee under this section, a

1-16     municipality or county may not limit, segregate, or classify the

1-17     employee in a manner that would deprive the employee of employment

1-18     opportunities or otherwise adversely affect the employee's status

1-19     as an employee in violation of federal law.

1-20           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-21           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-22     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-23     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-24     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-1     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.