HBA-BSM H.B. 3052 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 3052 By: Rangel Higher Education 4/8/2001 Introduced BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Under current Texas law, public employees are granted the right to present grievances concerning their wages, hours of employment, or conditions of work to their employer. Although opinions of the Attorney General have broadly interpreted the right to bring a grievance, certain public institutions of higher education do not have a formal grievance procedure in place for employees who are neither faculty or administrators. House Bill 3052 requires the governing board of each institution of higher education to establish a formal grievance procedure for employees other than faculty members and requires that an ombudsman be hired to assist in the grievance procedure. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. ANALYSIS House Bill 3052 amends the Education Code to require the governing body of each institution of higher education to establish a formal grievance procedure for certain employees of the institution. The grievance procedure must be designed to protect the rights of employees rather than to protect the institution and must provide for: _a written form for initiating the process; _a written explanation of grievance procedures; _deadlines that permit an employee adequate time to gather and organize documentation and prepare for any hearing on the grievance; _an impartial decision-making body composed of peers of the employee; _confidentiality of all communications made during the process; and _an appeals process that permits an employee to contest an adverse decision. The bill requires the governing board in conjunction with establishing the formal grievance procedure to employ an ombudsman to assist staff in participating in the grievance process, and to ensure that the institution has access to the services of a sufficient number of trained mediators to mediate differences between staff and management, regardless of whether those differences result in a grievance being filed. The bill requires the governing body of an institution of higher education to adopt the employee grievance procedure no later than December 31, 2001. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001.