By Carona                                        S.B. No. 737

      75R2287 PB-F                           

                                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 unpaid disciplinary

 1-4     suspensions.

 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 employed for purposes of this subtitle for a benefit

1-10     period in which the individual is suspended by the individual's

1-11     employer from the individual's position of employment without

1-12     compensation as a disciplinary action.

1-13           SECTION 2.  Section 207.045, Labor Code, is amended by adding

1-14     Subsection (i) to read as follows:

1-15           (i)  An individual who is suspended by the individual's

1-16     employer from the individual's position of employment for a

1-17     specified term not to exceed five days without compensation as a

1-18     disciplinary action is considered to have left the position of

1-19     employment voluntarily without good cause connected to the

1-20     employment if the individual does not return to the position of

1-21     employment after the expiration of the period of suspension.  The

1-22     disqualification for benefits under this subsection continues until

1-23     the conditions for requalification under Subsection (b) are

1-24     satisfied.

 2-1           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997, and

 2-2     applies only to eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits

 2-3     based on a claim filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on or

 2-4     after that date.  A claim filed before that date is governed by the

 2-5     law in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and the former

 2-6     law is continued in effect for that purpose.

 2-7           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.