By Chavez                                             H.B. No. 2881
         76R2343 PB-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to employment discrimination based on certain
 1-3     employer-imposed language requirements.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 21, Labor Code, is amended
 1-6     by  adding Section 21.0591 to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 21.0591.  DISCRIMINATION BASED ON CERTAIN
 1-8     EMPLOYER-IMPOSED LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS.  (a)  An employer commits
 1-9     an unlawful employment practice if the employer requires an
1-10     employee who is bilingual or multilingual to speak only the English
1-11     language while at the workplace.
1-12           (b)  An employer does not commit an unlawful employment
1-13     practice under Subsection (a)  by requiring an employee to speak
1-14     the English language while the employee is dealing with customers,
1-15     members of the public, or other persons who understand only the
1-16     English language.
1-17           (c)  If fluency in the English language is a bona fide
1-18     occupational qualification reasonably necessary for the performance
1-19     of a position of employment, an employer does not commit an
1-20     unlawful employment practice under Subsection (a)  by hiring and
1-21     employing a person on the basis of the person's fluency in the
1-22     English language.
1-23           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-24           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-1     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-2     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-3     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-4     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.