By:  Bivins                                           S.B. No. 1151
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to unemployment compensation benefits for certain persons
 1-2     engaged in seasonal employment.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subchapter D, Chapter 201, Labor Code, is amended
 1-5     by adding Section 201.048 to read as follows:
 1-6           Sec. 201.048.  SERVICES PERFORMED IN SEASONAL PLAY OR MUSICAL
 1-7     PRODUCTION.  (a)  In this section, "seasonal" means a period
 1-8     consisting of not more than 17 consecutive weeks in a calendar year
 1-9     that recurs annually at approximately the same time and during the
1-10     same months each calendar year.
1-11           (b)  Services performed for a seasonal play or musical
1-12     production, a principal purpose of which is education or historical
1-13     preservation regarding the state or a region of the state,
1-14     constitute employment for purposes of this subtitle.  Benefits are
1-15     payable to an individual based on seasonal services performed by
1-16     the individual for the seasonal play or musical production only for
1-17     the weeks of unemployment that occur, or the greater part of which
1-18     occur, during the seasonal work period.
1-19           (c)  The commission by rule shall determine the dates of a
1-20     seasonal period for purposes of this section.
1-21           SECTION 2.  (a)  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-22           (b)  The change in law made by this Act applies to
1-23     eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits based on an
1-24     unemployment compensation claim that is filed with the Texas
 2-1     Workforce Commission on or after the effective date of this Act.  A
 2-2     claim filed before the effective date of this Act is governed by
 2-3     the law in effect on the date the claim was filed, and the former
 2-4     law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 2-5           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.