By McCall, Junell, Brimer, Keffer, H.B. No. 341
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the use of certain information regarding a current or
1-3 former employee.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Title 3, Labor Code, is amended by adding Chapter
1-6 103 to read as follows:
1-7 CHAPTER 103. DISCLOSURE BY EMPLOYER OF INFORMATION REGARDING
1-8 CERTAIN EMPLOYEES OR FORMER EMPLOYEES
1-9 Sec. 103.001. PURPOSE; LEGISLATIVE FINDING. The legislature
1-10 finds that the disclosure by an employer of truthful information
1-11 regarding a current or former employee protects employment
1-12 relationships and benefits the public welfare. It is the intent of
1-13 the legislature that an employer who makes a disclosure based on
1-14 information obtained by the employer that any employer would
1-15 reasonably believe to be true should be immune from civil liability
1-16 for that disclosure.
1-17 Sec. 103.002. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
1-18 (1) "Employee" means a person who performs services
1-19 for an employer, whether or not for compensation.
1-20 (2) "Employer" means a person who has one or more
1-21 employees or other individuals who perform services under a
1-22 contract of hire or service, whether expressed or implied, or oral
1-23 or written.
1-24 (3) "Job performance" means the manner in which an
1-25 employee performs a position of employment and includes an analysis
2-1 of the employee's attendance at work, attitudes, effort,
2-2 knowledge, behaviors, and skills.
2-3 (4) "Prospective employee" means any person who has
2-4 made an application, either oral or written, or has sent a resume
2-5 or other correspondence indicating an interest in employment.
2-6 (5) "Prospective employer" means an employer to whom a
2-7 prospective employee has made an application, either oral or
2-8 written, or sent a resume or other correspondence expressing an
2-9 interest in employment.
2-10 Sec. 103.003. AUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE; APPLICATION TO CERTAIN
2-11 EMPLOYEES. (a) An employer may disclose information about a
2-12 current or former employee's job performance to a prospective
2-13 employer of the current or former employee on the request of the
2-14 prospective employer or the employee.
2-15 (b) An employer may not disclose information about a
2-16 licensed nurse or licensed vocational nurse that relates to conduct
2-17 that is protected under Article 4525d, Revised Statutes. The
2-18 employer must provide an affected nurse an opportunity to submit a
2-19 statement of reasonable length to the employer to establish the
2-20 application of Article 4525d, Revised Statutes.
2-21 Sec. 103.004. IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY; EMPLOYER
2-22 REPRESENTATIVES. (a) An employer who discloses information about
2-23 a current or former employee under Section 103.003 is immune from
2-24 civil liability for that disclosure or any damages proximately
2-25 caused by that disclosure unless it is proven by the preponderance
2-26 of the evidence that the information disclosed was known by that
2-27 employer to be false at the time the disclosure was made. For
3-1 purposes of this subsection, "known" means actual knowledge based
3-2 on information relating to the employee, including any information
3-3 maintained in a file by the employer on that employee.
3-4 (b) This chapter applies to a managerial employee or other
3-5 representative of the employer who is authorized to provide and who
3-6 provides information in accordance with this chapter in the same
3-7 manner that it applies to an employer.
3-8 Sec. 103.005. EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE. This chapter does not
3-9 require an employer to provide an employment reference to or about
3-10 a current or former employee.
3-11 SECTION 2. Chapter 103, Labor Code, as added by this Act,
3-12 applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after the
3-13 effective date of this Act. A cause of action that accrues before
3-14 that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately before
3-15 the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect
3-16 for that purpose.
3-17 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-18 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-19 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-20 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-21 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-22 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.