By Grusendorf                                         H.B. No. 1960
         76R6518 CMR-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to payment of wage requirements regarding employees
 1-3     charged with certain criminal offenses.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 61, Labor Code, is amended
 1-6     by adding Section 61.068 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 61.068.  EFFECT OF EMPLOYEE INDICTMENT.  (a)  If an
 1-8     employee is charged with an offense under Chapter 31 or 32, Penal
 1-9     Code, in which the victim of the alleged offense is the employee's
1-10     employer, the employer may notify the commission of the charge
1-11     against the employee and may forward the amount of wages owed to
1-12     the employee by the employer to the commission for deposit in an
1-13     interest-bearing account in the manner provided by Section 61.063.
1-14           (b)  If, after trial, the employee is convicted of the
1-15     offense for which the employee was charged or is convicted of a
1-16     lesser included offense of the offense for which the employee was
1-17     charged, the commission shall remit from the interest-bearing
1-18     account to the employer an amount equal to the amount of wages owed
1-19     to the convicted employee by the employer.  The commission shall
1-20     remit any interest earned on the amount of those wages to the
1-21     comptroller for deposit in the compensation to victims of crime
1-22     fund under Article 56.34, Code of Criminal Procedure.
1-23           (c)  If the employee is acquitted of the offense for which
1-24     the employee was charged or if charges against the employee are
 2-1     dismissed under Chapter 32, Code of Criminal Procedure, the
 2-2     commission shall remit the wages collected under this section and
 2-3     any interest earned on those wages to the claimant employee not
 2-4     later than the 30th day after the date of the acquittal or
 2-5     dismissal.
 2-6           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 2-7           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies only to an
 2-8     offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.  For
 2-9     purposes of this section, an offense is committed before the
2-10     effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
2-11     before that date.
2-12           (c)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
2-13     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
2-14     and the former law is continued in effect for this purpose.
2-15           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
2-16     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-17     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-18     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-19     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.