HBA-CMT C.S.H.B. 2273 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 2273
By: Davis, Yvonne
Urban Affairs
4/8/2001
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, there is not a set maximum number of hours that a police officer
may be required to work in one calendar week.  The Local Government Code
only states that police officers may not work more hours in one week than
the majority of the other employees of a municipality who are not police
officers and firefighters.  C.S.H.B. 2273 establishes a specific number of
hours in a calendar week in which a police officer in certain
municipalities may be required to work. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 2273 amends the Local Government Code to provide that, except for
the event of an emergency or if a majority of police officers sign a
waiver, police officers in certain municipalities may not be required to
work more than 40 hours during a calendar week  The prohibition applies in
a municipality that has a population of more than one million, is not
subject to provisions pertaining to hours of labor and vacation of members
of fire and police departments in municipalities with populations of more
than 1.5 million,  and has not adopted The Fire and Police Employee
Relations Act. 

The bill provides that in determining whether a police officer is
considered to have been required to work overtime, all hours are counted
during which the police officer is required to remain available for
immediate call to duty by continuously remaining in contact with a police
department office by telephone or radio, during which the officer is taking
any authorized leave, including sick leave, vacation, holiday leave,
compensatory time off, or leave because of a death in the family, and
during which the officer is considered to have worked in the event of an
emergency. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2273 modifies the original by defining the hours in which an
officer is considered to have been required to work so that any excess
hours can be determined to be overtime hours.