Articles Discussing General Topics In Texas Labor & Employment Law.

The question of who provides workers’ compensation insurance in employer–staffing company relationships is handled in different ways. Frequently, the staffing company will provide workers’ compensation coverage for all individuals provided to the client company. Issues sometimes arise related to the client company’s and staffing company’s liability under a joint-employer theory

Executive Summary: In a recent case, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the validity of an arbitration clause in a case that had been in litigation for over nine years without the claim ever being heard. See In re Whataburger Restaurants LLC. The lengthy timeline of this case, summarized below, demonstrates the risk of placing binding arbitration agreements within nonbinding documents, which may lead to lengthy court challenges regarding the enforceability of an arbitration clause before any resolution of the underlying dispute.

For many years, an oft-litigated question concerned whether a former employee was owed the commissions on sales made prior to the employee’s discharge from employment. Sometimes employment agreements were clear on the issue, such as by providing unambiguously that commissions would be paid when the employer received payment for a

On January 13, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion staying preliminary injunctions issued in cases filed in Missouri and Louisiana challenging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) COVID-19 vaccination mandate for healthcare providers. The ruling stayed preliminary injunctions applicable to twenty-four states. Twenty-five

Texas House Bill 25, “The Save Women’s Sports Bill,” would bar public school students from participating in interscholastic athletic opportunities designated for the opposite “biological sex.”

The proposed legislation was passed by the Texas State Senate by a 19-12 margin, and an amended version of the measure received support and

On October 11, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued Executive Order GA-40, which states that no entity in Texas can “compel” any individual, including any employee or consumer, to receive a COVID-19 vaccination who objects “for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical

On October 11, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott issued Executive Order (EO) No. GA-40, prohibiting any entity in Texas from requiring any individual, including an employee, to receive a COVID-19 vaccination if that individual objects to the vaccination “for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for

Over its regular and two special sessions, the Texas legislature has passed several bills that are or soon will be in effect and will impact employers’ workplace policies and procedures. Additional special legislative sessions yet may be held and, with them, more changes may be on the horizon.

Navigating the unemployment benefit administrative process under the Texas Unemployment Compensation Act can be difficult for employers. The act limits the type of conduct that may disqualify a claimant from receiving benefits, but it does provide for disqualification “if the individual was discharged for misconduct connected with the individual’s last

Over 600 new laws went into effect on September 1, 2021 in Texas. Importantly, three (Senate Bill No. 45, Senate Bill No. 282, the House Bill No. 21) drastically modified the well-established, employer-friendly framework governing sexual harassment claims brought in the Lone Star state. In particular, these changes include: (1) greater protection to individuals working for small employers not otherwise covered by anti-discrimination laws; (2) individual liability for sexual harassment; (3) expanded periods in which employees are allowed to file complaints with applicable federal and state enforcement agencies; and (4) a prohibition on using tax-payer funds to resolve sexual harassment claims against elected officials.

Beginning September 1, 2021, Texas employers of any size may be sued for sexual harassment in the workplace under legislative changes (SB 45) passed by the Texas legislature. SB 45 also expands liability to include individuals and business entities.

In an apparent rebuttal to Governor Abbott’s July 29, 2021, Executive Order (GA-38), which was aimed at creating uniformity in the response to COVID-19 throughout the State of Texas and which prohibited local authorities from imposing their own mask, vaccine, or other COVID-related restrictions on businesses and schools (while

On July 29, 2021, Governor Greg Abbott issued Executive Order GA-38, combining several existing COVID-19 executive orders for the stated purpose of promoting statewide uniformity and certainty in the state’s COVID-19 response.

In a surprising move for what has historically been an extremely employer-friendly state, Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed two new bills (Senate Bill 45 and House Bill 21) that significantly expand the protections for employees who assert claims of sexual harassment under the Texas Labor Code.  Both laws