76R8147 PB-F
By McCall, Junell, Brimer, Keffer, Luna, H.B. No. 341
et al.
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 341:
By Brimer C.S.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. DEFINITIONS. In this chapter:
1-10 (1) "Employee" means a person who performs services
1-11 for an employer, whether or not for compensation.
1-12 (2) "Employer" means a person who has one or more
1-13 employees or other individuals who perform services under a
1-14 contract of hire or service, whether expressed or implied, or oral
1-15 or written.
1-16 (3) "Job performance" means the manner in which an
1-17 employee performs a position of employment and includes an analysis
1-18 of the employee's attendance at work, attitudes, effort,
1-19 knowledge, behaviors, and skills.
1-20 (4) "Prospective employee" means any person who has
1-21 made an application, either oral or written, or has sent a resume
1-22 or other correspondence indicating an interest in employment.
1-23 (5) "Prospective employer" means an employer to whom a
1-24 prospective employee has made an application, either oral or
2-1 written, or sent a resume or other correspondence expressing an
2-2 interest in employment.
2-3 Sec. 103.002. AUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE. An employer may
2-4 disclose information about a current or former employee's job
2-5 performance to a prospective employer of the current or former
2-6 employee on the request of the prospective employer or the
2-7 employee.
2-8 Sec. 103.003. IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY; EMPLOYER
2-9 REPRESENTATIVES. (a) An employer who discloses information about
2-10 a current or former employee under Section 103.002 is immune from
2-11 civil liability for that disclosure or any damages proximately
2-12 caused by that disclosure unless it is proven by the preponderance
2-13 of the evidence that the information disclosed was known by that
2-14 employer to be false at the time the disclosure was made. For
2-15 purposes of this subsection, "known" means actual knowledge based
2-16 on information relating to the employee that is retained, at the
2-17 time of the disclosure, in the file maintained by the employer on
2-18 that employee, and includes a transcription of any information
2-19 conveyed orally by the employer to the employee.
2-20 (b) This chapter applies to a managerial employee or other
2-21 representative of the employer who is authorized to provide and who
2-22 provides information in accordance with this chapter in the same
2-23 manner that it applies to an employer.
2-24 Sec. 103.004. EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE. This chapter does not
2-25 require an employer to provide an employment reference to or about
2-26 a current or former employee.
2-27 SECTION 2. Chapter 103, Labor Code, as added by this Act,
3-1 applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after the
3-2 effective date of this Act. A cause of action that accrues before
3-3 that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately before
3-4 the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect
3-5 for that purpose.
3-6 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-7 SECTION 4. The importance of this legislation and the
3-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.