Skip to main content

Texas Legislature's Attempt to Ban Local Paid Leave Ordinances Falters as Legislative Session Ends


On May 27th, the Texas Legislature's legislative session ended.  (For those unaware, the Texas Legislature meets only on odd numbered years and is limited to a regular session of 140 calendar days.  With that being said, the Governor may call a special session after the regular session ends.  Notably, the Governor is allowed to call as many special sessions as he/she wants.  However, a special session is limited to only 30 days and lawmakers are only able to consider those issues specifically designated by the Governor.)

During this past legislative session, the Texas Legislature was considering legislation which would have prohibited local municipalities from passing their own paid leave laws.  (Readers will recall that Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio have been at the forefront of this matter, having passed their own paid leave ordinances.)  The Texas Senate, under majority control by Republicans, indicated that passing a bill banning these local ordinances was a priority for the legislative session.  In doing so, several pieces of legislation were put forward this legislative session:

  • Senate Bill 15 sought to eliminate these local ordinances by creating a statewide framework for employment laws in Texas.  However, Senate Bill 15 faltered when Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick insisted on removing language from the bill which would have protected nondiscrimination ordinances for LGBTQ workers in the state and support for the legislation dissipated. 
  • Senate Bill 15 was subsequently split up into four separate bills, in an effort to salvage the legislation.  All four of these separate bills managed to pass the Senate.  However, these four separate bills also did not carve out any protections for nondiscrimination ordinances for LGBTZ workers in the state.  Language in regard to the nondiscrimination protection was put back into the bills by the House State Affairs Committee, but failed to advance further.

The question now turns to the inevitable:  What's next?  In short, those hoping for a reprieve from the Legislature are likely out of luck.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott has indicated he has no intent to call a special session.  With that option off the table, short of waiting for the Legislature to reconvene in 2021, employers and business groups have turned their eyes to the courts.  Last year, an appeals court in Austin found that Austin's paid sick leave ordinance was unconstitutional.  (That decision is currently being appealed by the City of Austin.)  Whether the Texas Supreme Court decides to take the case remains to be seen.  Currently, the paid leave ordinances in Dallas and San Antonio remain in place as no lawsuits have yet been filed to challenge those.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...