HBA-MPM C.S.H.B. 3120 77(R) BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3120 By: Ritter Business & Industry 4/9/2001 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Current law specifies that workers' compensation benefits are the exclusive remedy of an employee covered by workers' compensation insurance against the employer or an agent or employee of the employer for work-related injuries sustained by an employee. Injured employees must look exclusively to the insurance carrier for compensation for injuries sustained on the job and are prohibited from seeking common law remedies from the employer. Business entities such as parent and subsidiary corporations are currently omitted from law that specifies which entities are covered under an employer's workers' compensation policy. Because of this omission, these entities may find themselves defendants in a common law suit brought by injured employees who work for a business unit the entities either own or control. C.S.H.B. 3120 prohibits injured employees from seeking common law remedies against a parent corporation, subsidiary corporation, or subsidiary of a parent corporation of an employer that are named insureds on an employer's policy of worker's compensation insurance. 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 C.S.H.B. 3120 amends the Labor Code to provide that recovery of workers' compensation benefits is the exclusive remedy of an employee covered by workers' compensation insurance coverage or a legal beneficiary for the death of or a work-related injury sustained by the employee against a parent or subsidiary corporation of the employer or any other subsidiary that is a named insured on the employer's policy of workers' compensation insurance or is covered by a certificate of authority to self-insure issued by the Texas Workers Compensation Commission, or an agent or employee of a parent corporation or other subsidiary. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2001. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B. 3120 conforms the original bill to Texas Legislative Council format.