79R7235 PB-F


By:  Ritter                                                       H.B. No. 1939


A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to certain disqualifications for unemployment compensation benefits for assigned employees of staff leasing services companies. BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: SECTION 1. Subchapter D, Chapter 91, Labor Code, is amended by adding Section 91.0445 to read as follows: Sec. 91.0445. REQUIRED NOTICE. (a) A staff leasing services company must provide the written notice required under Section 207.045(i)(1) in a separate document that complies with the requirements of this section, a copy of which must be provided to the assigned employee. The document must be signed by the assigned employee. (b) The document must: (1) be in bold-faced type, capital letters, underlined, or otherwise set out from accompanying written material so as to be conspicuous; and (2) be in substantially the following language: "You are an employee of (NAME OF STAFF LEASING SERVICES COMPANY), a staff leasing services company licensed under Chapter 91, Labor Code. In your employment with (NAME OF STAFF LEASING SERVICES COMPANY), you may be assigned to work at a client company and be supervised, wholly or partly, by the employees of that client company. On conclusion of an assignment, you remain an employee of (NAME OF STAFF LEASING SERVICES COMPANY) and must contact (NAME OF STAFF LEASING SERVICES COMPANY) and make yourself available for continued employment and assignments. "To report your availability for continued employment and assignments, you must contact (NAME OF STAFF LEASING SERVICES COMPANY) by the end of the next business day after the conclusion of an assignment by calling the company's Employee Assignment Line at (TOLL-FREE TELEPHONE NUMBER), and speaking personally to a company placement representative." SECTION 2. Section 207.045(i), Labor Code, is amended to read as follows: (i) An assigned employee of a staff leasing services company is considered to have left the assigned employee's last work without good cause if the staff leasing services company demonstrates that: (1) at the time the employee's assignment to a client company concluded, the staff leasing services company gave written notice as provided by Section 91.0445 and instructions to the assigned employee to contact the staff leasing services company for a new assignment [on termination of assignment at a client company]; and (2) the assigned employee did not contact the staff leasing services company regarding reassignment or continued employment; provided that the assigned employee may show that good cause existed for the assigned employee's failure to contact the staff leasing services company. SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only to a claim for unemployment compensation benefits that is filed with the Texas Workforce Commission on or after the effective date of this Act. A claim filed before that date is governed by the law in effect on the date that the claim was filed, and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.