By: Nichols S.B. No. 1474
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to compensation for certain emergency services personnel.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 659, Government Code, is
  amended by adding Section 659.025 to read as follows:
         Sec. 659.025.  USE OF COMPENSATORY TIME BY CERTAIN EMERGENCY
  SERVICES PERSONNEL; OPTIONAL OVERTIME PAYMENT.  (a)  In this
  section, "emergency services personnel" includes firefighters,
  police officers and other peace officers, emergency medical
  technicians, emergency management personnel, and other individuals
  who are required, in the course and scope of their employment, to
  provide services for the benefit of the general public during
  emergency situations.
         (b)  This section applies only to a state employee who is
  emergency services personnel, who is not subject to the overtime
  provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (29
  U.S.C. Section 201 et seq.), and who is not an employee of the
  legislature, including an employee of the lieutenant governor or of
  a legislative agency.
         (c)  Notwithstanding Section 659.016 or any other law, an
  employee to whom this section applies may be allowed to take
  compensatory time off during the 18-month period following the end
  of the workweek in which the compensatory time was accrued.
         (d)  Notwithstanding Section 659.016 or any other law, the
  administrative head of a state agency that employs an employee to
  whom this section applies may pay the employee overtime at the
  employee's regular hourly salary rate for all or part of the hours
  of compensatory time off accrued by the employee during a declared
  disaster in the preceding 18-month period.  The administrative head
  shall reduce the employee's compensatory time balance by one hour
  for each hour the employee is paid overtime under this section.
         SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2009.