By Keffer                                             H.B. No. 1385
         76R52 PB-D                           
                                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 (e) to read as follows:
 1-8           (e)  Notwithstanding Subsection (b), an individual is not
 1-9     partially unemployed 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 (j) to read as follows:
1-15           (j)  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, 1999, 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.