By McCall                                              H.B. No. 341
         76R2710 PB-D                           
                                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 the duties and responsibilities of a position of
1-18     employment and includes an analysis of the employee's  attendance
1-19     at work, attitude toward the job, effort, knowledge, and skills, as
1-20     exemplified through evaluations, awards, demotions, promotions,
1-21     disciplinary actions, and other analogous personnel actions.
1-22                 (4)  "Prospective employee" means any person who has
1-23     made an application, either oral or written, or has sent a resume
1-24     or other correspondence indicating an interest in employment.
 2-1                 (5)  "Prospective employer" means an employer to whom a
 2-2     prospective employee has made an application, either oral or
 2-3     written, or sent a resume or other correspondence expressing an
 2-4     interest in employment.
 2-5           Sec. 103.002.  AUTHORIZED DISCLOSURE.  An employer may
 2-6     disclose information about a current or former employee's job
 2-7     performance to a prospective employer of the current or former
 2-8     employee on  the request of the prospective employer or the
 2-9     employee.
2-10           Sec. 103.003.  INFORMATION PROVIDED TO APPLICANT FOR
2-11     EMPLOYMENT.  (a)  On receipt of a written request by an applicant
2-12     for employment, a prospective employer shall provide to the
2-13     applicant, not later than the 30th day after the date on which the
2-14     request is received by the employer, copies of all written
2-15     communications from current and former employers of the applicant
2-16     that may reasonably be believed to affect the applicant's
2-17     possibility of employment with the prospective employer.
2-18           (b)  An applicant for employment must make a request under
2-19     Subsection (a) not later than the 30th day after the date on which
2-20     the applicant completes the application process required by the
2-21     prospective employer.
2-22           Sec. 103.004.  IMMUNITY FROM CIVIL LIABILITY; EMPLOYER
2-23     REPRESENTATIVES.  (a)  An employer who discloses information about
2-24     a current or former employee under Section 103.002 is immune from
2-25     civil liability for that disclosure or any damages proximately
2-26     caused by that disclosure unless it is proven by the preponderance
2-27     of the evidence that the  information disclosed was known by that
 3-1     employer to be false at the time the disclosure was made.
 3-2           (b)  This chapter applies to a managerial employee or other
 3-3     representative of the employer who is authorized to provide and who
 3-4     provides information in accordance with this chapter in the same
 3-5     manner that it applies to an employer.
 3-6           Sec. 103.005.  EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE.  This chapter does not
 3-7     require an employer to provide an employment reference to or about
 3-8     a current or former employee.
 3-9           SECTION 2.  Chapter 103, Labor Code, as added by this Act,
3-10     applies only to a cause of action that accrues on or after the
3-11     effective date of this Act.  A cause of action that accrues before
3-12     that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately before
3-13     the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect
3-14     for that purpose.
3-15           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
3-16           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
3-17     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-18     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-19     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-20     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.