Bill: HB 94, 84(R) - 2015

Committee

House Business & Industry

Vote Recommendation

Vote Recommendation Economic Freedom Property Rights Personal Responsibility Limited Government Individual Liberty
No Negative Neutral Neutral Negative Neutral

Author(s)

Mary Gonzalez

Co-Author(s)

Jeff Leach
Ramon Romero Jr.

Bill Caption

Relating to a database of employers penalized for failure to pay wages or convicted of certain offenses involving wage theft.

Fiscal Notes

Based on information provided by the Texas Workforce Commission, it is assumed that duties and responsibilities associated with implementing the provisions of the bill could be accomplished by utilizing existing resources

Bill Analysis

HB 94 would create an online database or list of employers convicted of wage theft. Business entities included in the database must be notified no later than 180 days before they are listed in the database. An employer would have the right to dispute inclusion in the database The process must require the commission to investigate and make a final determination regarding an employer dispute not later than the 21st day after the date the dispute is filed. The commission would be required to list an employer in the database until the third anniversary of the date the penalty is assessed or the employer is convicted.

For purposes of this legislation, a person has been convicted of an offense if the person was adjudged guilty of the offense or entered a plea of guilty or nolo contendere in return for a grant of deferred adjudication, regardless of whether the sentence for the offense was ever imposed or whether the sentence was probated and the person was subsequently discharged from community supervision. 

Vote Recommendation Notes

HB 94 would amount to social stigmatization of employers convicted of wage theft. Wage theft is certainly no light matter and it is already a crime with an associated penalty. There is no reason for the state to maintain the registry proposed in this legislation. The private sector has mechanisms in place such as losing organizational accreditation and crowd-sourced review sites that can accomplish the desired goals of the proposed database more directly and effectively than a state run system. We are opposed to this legislation as an infringement on limited government and free markets.

Organizations Supporting

City of El Paso
Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas
Texas AFL-CIO
Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops

Source URL (retrieved on 03/29/2024 03:03 AM): http://reports.texasaction.com/bill/84r/hb94?print_view=true