By Siebert, Holzheauser, Goolsby,                     H.B. No. 1720

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to a disqualification of eligibility for unemployment

 1-3     compensation benefits for periods of partial unemployment caused by

 1-4     a reduction in hours as a result of misconduct.

 1-5           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-6           SECTION 1.  Section 201.091, Labor Code, is amended by adding

 1-7     Subsection (d) to read as follows:

 1-8           (d)  Notwithstanding Subsection (b), an individual is not

 1-9     partially unemployed for purposes of this subtitle for a benefit

1-10     period in which the individual's working hours are reduced by the

1-11     individual's employer as a result of misconduct connected with the

1-12     work on the part of the individual.  Such limitation will be

1-13     effective for a maximum of four weeks from the effective date of

1-14     such a reduction in hours.

1-15           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

1-16     applies only to eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits

1-17     based on a claim filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on or

1-18     after that date.  A claim filed before that date is governed by the

1-19     law in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and the former

1-20     law is continued in effect for that purpose.

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

1-25     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.