Bill Caption

Fiscal Notes

A fiscal note dated March 9, 2015 anticipates no significant fiscal implications to the State or units of local government. It also indicates that based on information provided by the Texas Workforce Commission, the implementation of the bill could be accomplished by utilizing existing resources. 

Bill Analysis

Vote Recommendation Notes

Currently, employees that are terminated by their employers for misconduct do not qualify for unemployment benefits. Nevertheless, if an employee anticipates that he/she is going to be fired for misconduct, this employee has the option to resign first.

House Bill 934 would establish that in such a case (in which an employee resigns not to be discharged for misconduct by his/her employer), the employer would still have the option to terminate the employee for misconduct after he gave his advance notice. This would disqualify the employee from receiving unemployment benefits.

Under current law (Sec. 207.045 of the Labor Code), an employee who resigns must do it with good cause (which includes an injury, a pregnancy, a move from the area of employment by the employee's spouse who is a member of the armed forces of the United States) in order to qualify for unemployment benefits. House Bill 934 would make sure that no individual who is about to be discharged for misconduct can find a way to take advantage of current law to escape the consequences of his misconduct, and qualify for unemployment benefits.

House Bill 934 hence favors personal responsibility, as well as a limited government, by making sure only individuals that find themselves unemployed due to no fault of their own can qualify to receive unemployment benefits and an individual cannot use the system to escape his/her responsibility.