• March 1, 2019

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: City of Dallas Proposes New Local Employment Ordinance

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: City of Dallas Proposes New Local Employment Ordinance

1000 523 ASSET – Alliance for Securing and Strengthening the Economy in Texas

The Alliance for Securing and Strengthening the Economy in Texas (ASSET) released the following statement regarding a proposal by made yesterday by the city of Dallas to regulate a private employment benefit. Dallas’ announcement comes on the heels of yesterday’s vote by the Senate State Affairs Committee to send Senate Bill 15—the Consistent Employment Regulations Act—to a vote of the full Senate.

“Dallas is the latest city to attempt to entangle job creators in a web of government red tape, and without action by the Texas Legislature to pass the Consistent Employment Regulations Act, it won’t be the last,” ASSET Spokeswoman Annie Spilman said. “Businesses that operate in multiple Texas cities shouldn’t have to grapple with burdensome regulations every time an employee works across city limits. Ensuring our state has consistent, streamlined employment regulations encourages job creation in every corner of Texas and frees up employers and employees to grow the economy.”

If passed, the city of Dallas’ ordinance would be one of the most onerous in the nation, outdoing similar ordinances passed in California. Dallas is following the lead of Austin and San Antonio, which both enacted almost identical policies late last year regulating private employment practices. Additionally, Houston and Austin have included private employment regulations atop their city platforms for 2019.

State leadership has made it a priority this legislative session to ensure Texas has consistent employment regulations. In addition to Senate Bill 15, the House version of the Consistent Employment Regulations Act, House Bill 1654, is expected to be referred to committee soon.

An inconsistent patchwork of employment regulations creates compliance issues and bureaucratic hurdles for employers of all sizes that operate in multiple jurisdictions across the state, in addition to unnecessary confusion for their employees. Streamlined, statewide employment regulations allow job creators to spend less time dealing with government bureaucracy—including differing and multiplying local policies, paperwork, city administrators, penalties, fines, employee handbooks and more—and more time investing in their employees, their businesses and their communities.

Texans overwhelmingly support consistent employment regulations. In a recent poll, 63 percent of Texans said they do not want to enact a patchwork of local regulations by allowing cities to regulate private employment practices, and 76 percent said the Legislature should make sure laws and regulations are uniform across the state. Further, 86 percent of Republicans, 73 percent of Democrats and 69 percent of Independents agreed that labor regulations should not vary by city, creating confusion and compliance issues for employers and employees.

ASSET is a non-profit coalition of job creation organizations that fights for policies that fuel the engines of our economy and protect Texas businesses from invasive and burdensome government regulations. ASSET collectively represents millions of employers and employees in the Lone Star State who believe employment and business operational decisions are best left to private employers, not government. For more information, please visit www.assettexas.com.