By Tillery                                            H.B. No. 2642
         77R4261 PB-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to prohibiting an employer who does not provide workers'
 1-3     compensation insurance coverage from engaging in certain
 1-4     discrimination against an employee who sustains an
 1-5     employment-related injury.
 1-6           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-7           SECTION 1.  Section 451.001, Labor Code, is amended to read
 1-8     as follows:
 1-9           Sec. 451.001.  DISCRIMINATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES PROHIBITED.
1-10     (a)  A person may not discharge or in any other manner discriminate
1-11     against an employee because the employee has:
1-12                 (1)  filed a workers' compensation claim in good faith;
1-13                 (2)  hired a lawyer to represent the employee in a
1-14     claim;
1-15                 (3)  instituted or caused to be instituted in good
1-16     faith a proceeding under Subtitle A; or
1-17                 (4)  testified or is about to testify in a proceeding
1-18     under Subtitle A.
1-19           (b)  An employer who does not provide workers' compensation
1-20     insurance coverage may not discharge or in any other manner
1-21     discriminate against an employee who sustains an injury that would
1-22     be a compensable injury under Subtitle A if the employer provided
1-23     workers' compensation insurance coverage because the employee has:
1-24                 (1)  instituted or caused to be instituted an action
 2-1     against the employer based on the employment-related injury;
 2-2                 (2)  hired a lawyer to represent the employee in an
 2-3     action described by Subdivision (1); or
 2-4                 (3)  testified or is about to testify in an action
 2-5     described by Subdivision (1).
 2-6           SECTION 2.  Section 451.001, Labor Code, as amended by this
 2-7     Act, applies only to a cause of action that  accrues on or after
 2-8     the effective date of this Act.  A cause of action that accrues
 2-9     before that date is governed by the law as it existed immediately
2-10     before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in
2-11     effect for that purpose.
2-12           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.