Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.

      Line and page numbers may not match official copy.

      By Greenberg                                    H.B. No. 3116

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to work supplementation programs for certain welfare

 1-3     recipients.

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

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter G, Chapter 2308, Government Code, is

 1-6     amended by adding Section 2308.314 to read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 2308.314.  PARTICIPATION IN WAGE SUPPLEMENTATION

 1-8     PROGRAMS; DISPLACEMENT OF EMPLOYEES PROHIBITED.  (a)  An employer

 1-9     may not hire a welfare recipient under a wage supplementation

1-10     program if the hiring:

1-11                 (1)  will result in:

1-12                       (A)  the displacement or partial displacement of

1-13     an employee from an existing position;

1-14                       (B)  the elimination of a vacant position created

1-15     by the lay off of an employee in the previous 90 days.

1-16                 (2)  will impair an existing collective bargaining

1-17     agreement.

1-18           (b)  A participant in the work supplementation program is:

1-19                 (1)  considered an employee of the participating

1-20     employer for all purposes under state and federal law;

1-21                 (2)  entitled to receive sick leave, vacation, and paid

1-22     holidays or other pay to the same extent as other employees of the

1-23     employer who perform the same type of work; and

1-24                 (3)  entitled to receive compensation at a rate that is

 2-1     not less than the rate the employer pays other employees with

 2-2     similar background, training, or experience who are performing the

 2-3     same type work.

 2-4           (c)  In this section:

 2-5                 (1)  "Participant" means a welfare recipient who

 2-6     participates in a work supplementation program.

 2-7                 (2)  "Welfare recipient" means a person who receives

 2-8     financial assistance under Chapter 31, Human Resources Code, or

 2-9     food stamps under the food stamp program administered under Chapter

2-10     33, Human  Resources Code.

2-11                 (3)  "Work supplementation program" means a program

2-12     under which the state reserves all or part of the amounts that

2-13     would be payable as benefits to welfare recipients and uses those

2-14     amounts to provide and subsidize jobs for recipients.

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

2-16           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.