By Garcia                                              H.B. No. 170
         Line and page numbers may not match official copy.
         Bill not drafted by TLC or Senate E&E.
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to prohibiting an employer who does not provide workers'
 1-3     compensation insurance coverage from engaging in certain
 1-4     discrimination against an employee who sustains an
 1-5     employment-related injury.
 1-6           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-7           SECTION 1.  Section 451.001, Labor Code, is amended to read
 1-8     as follows:
 1-9           Sec. 451.001.  DISCRIMINATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES PROHIBITED.
1-10     (a)  A person may not discharge or in any other manner discriminate
1-11     against an employee because the employee has:
1-12                 (1)  filed a workers' compensation claim in good faith;
1-13                 (2)  hired a lawyer to represent the employee in a
1-14     claim; chose their own doctor
1-15                 (3)  instituted or caused to be instituted in good
1-16     faith a proceeding under Subtitle A; or
1-17                 (4)  testified or is about to testify in a proceeding
1-18     under Subtitle A.
1-19           (b)  An employer who does not provide workers' compensation
1-20     insurance coverage may not discharge or in any other manner
1-21     discriminate against an employee who sustains an injury that would
 2-1     be a compensable injury under Subtitle A if the employer provided
 2-2     workers' compensation insurance coverage because the employee has:
 2-3                 (1)  instituted or caused to be instituted an action
 2-4     against the employer based on the employment-related injury;
 2-5                 (2)  hired a lawyer to represent the employee in an
 2-6     action described by Subdivision (1); or chose their own doctor
 2-7                 (3)  testified or is about to testify in an action
 2-8     described by Subdivision (1).
 2-9           SECTION 2.  Section 451.001, Labor Code, as amended by this
2-10     Act, applies only to a cause of action that  accrues on or after
2-11     the effective date of this Act.  A cause of action that accrues
2-12     before that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately
2-13     before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in
2-14     effect for that purpose.
2-15           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
2-16           SECTION 4.  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.