HBA-CMT H.B. 3185 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3185 By: Turner, Bob Corrections 8/28/2001 Enrolled BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Some of the reasons for the correction officer shortage in Texas in recent years were low pay, frustration by pay schedules that top out after three years of employment, a complicated grievance process, and a training regimen where one in four correctional officers did not receive the required 40 hours of in-service training. It was estimated that the cost of correctional officer turnover in fiscal year 2000 was over $40 million. The number of new hires could not meet the demand created by increased attrition. In an effort to increase the number and quality of corrections officers and provide more effective labor-management relations, House Bill 3185 amends personnel policies regarding Texas corrections officers and establishes regular labor-management meetings. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 3185 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) in conjunction with the human resource committee (committee) of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (board) or any other committee created by the board to carry out the functions of the human resources committee to review the implementation of and make recommendations for rule and policy changes to: _career ladders programs; _professional development of correctional officers and supervisory personnel; _labor-management cooperation, recruitment, and retention policies; and _disciplinary and grievance procedures. The bill requires TDCJ, in conjunction with the committee to submit a report biennially to the legislature regarding the rule and policy changes. The bill requires TDCJ to adopt a policy not later than October 1, 2001 that provides for an exit interview of each institutional division employee who terminates employment with TDCJ. Employee participation in the interview process is voluntary, and TDCJ is not required to conduct an exit interview of an employee who is terminated against the employee's will. The bill requires TDCJ to analyze responses to interviews conducted on the basis of the age, gender, race or ethnicity, years of service, rank, and duty locations of the responding employees. The bill requires TDCJ to submit to the board an annual report on the use of the grievance procedure, and specifies information the report must include. The bill requires TDCJ to develop a career ladder program for the institutional division to retain professionally qualified employees. The bill sets forth factors on which the program must base the advancement of an employee. The bill requires TDCJ to promote a correctional officer candidate to the level of Texas Law Enforcement Correctional Officer upon completion of the hours of training and the years of experience required by TDCJ . The bill sets forth requirements for the development of training programs and employee participation. The bill requires TDCJ to implement policies mandating bimonthly labor-management meetings between each regional director or the assistant regional director and employees selected by TDCJ or employees chosen by employees selected by TDCJ. At each bimonthly labor-management meeting, both parties are required to have an opportunity to improve labor-management relations by addressing issues selected by the parties. The bill requires a regional director to submit a report at the conclusion of each bimonthly meeting to the director of the institutional division describing the progress of the meetings. The bill requires the director of the institutional division to conduct statewide meetings with employee representatives. EFFECTIVE DATE Vetoed.