BILL ANALYSIS
By: Hodge
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Under current law, an individual may be disqualified for unemployment benefits from the state if he/she is unemployed due to a labor dispute occurring at another workplace. H.B. 972 allows workers to receive unemployment benefits if locked out or placed on emergency leave due to a dispute involving an unrelated labor contract.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the opinion of the committee that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 207.048, Labor Code, by amending Subsections (a), (b), and (f) and by adding Subsection (g) as follows:
(a) Removes the provision that benefits may be denied to an employee in circumstances where the individual's unemployment is caused by a labor dispute at another place that is owned or operated by or that supplies material or services to the employing unit where the individual is or was last employed.
(b) Adds provisions by which disqualifications for benefits do not relate to an individual who shows, to the satisfaction of the Texas Workforce Commission, that he/she has been:
(3) locked out of his/her place of employment; or
(4) placed on emergency leave without pay by his/her employer.
(f) Adds text that defines, for the purpose of this section:
(1) the words "Lock out" and
(2) the word "Premises."
(g) Provides that, for the purpose of Subsection (b), the payment of regular union dues by an individual does not signify financing a labor dispute.
SECTION 2. States the effective date for this Act.
EFFECTIVE DATE
Upon passage, or, if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act takes effect September 1, 2007.