79R3618 PB-F

By:  Barrientos                                                   S.B. No. 714



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to prohibiting discrimination against certain employees 
who sustain an injury in the course and scope of their employment.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Section 451.001, Labor Code, is amended to read 
as follows:      
	Sec. 451.001.  DISCRIMINATION AGAINST EMPLOYEES 
PROHIBITED.  A person may not discharge or in any other manner 
discriminate against an employee because the employee has:
		(1)  filed a workers' compensation claim in good faith;                       
		(2)  hired a lawyer to represent the employee in a 
workers' compensation claim;
		(3)  instituted or caused to be instituted in good 
faith:            
			(A)  a proceeding under Subtitle A; or                                
			(B)  if the employee's employer does not have 
workers' compensation insurance coverage, a proceeding under 
common law relating to an injury sustained by the employee in the 
course and scope of the employee's employment, including an action 
described by Section 406.033; or
		(4)  testified or is about to testify in a proceeding 
described by Subdivision (3) [under Subtitle A].
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only 
to a cause of action that accrues on or after the effective date of 
this Act.  A cause of action that accrues before that date is 
governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective 
date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that 
purpose.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.