HBA-CMT C.S.H.B. 3185 77(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3185
By: Turner, Bob
Corrections
4/17/2001
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Some of the reasons for the current correction officer shortage in Texas
are low pay, frustration by pay schedules that top out after three years of
employment, a complicated grievance process, and a training regimen where
one in four correctional officers does not receive the required 40 hours of
in-service training. It is estimated that the cost of correctional officer
turnover in fiscal year 2000 was over $40 million.  The number of new hires
cannot meet the demand created by increased attrition.  In an effort to
increase the number and quality of corrections officers and provide more
effective labor-management relations, C.S.H.B. 3185 amends personnel
policies regarding Texas corrections officers and establishes regular
labor-management meetings.  

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate additional rulemaking authority to a state officer,
department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 3185 amends the Government Code to require the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice (TDCJ) in conjunction with the human resource committee
(committee) of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice (board) or any other
committee created by the board to carry out the functions of the human
resources committee to review the implementation of and make
recommendations for rule and policy changes to:  

_career ladders programs; 

_professional development of correctional officers and supervisory
personnel;  

_labor-management cooperation, recruitment, and retention policies; and 

_disciplinary and grievance procedures. 

The bill requires TDCJ, in conjunction with the committee to submit a
report biennially to the legislature regarding the rule and policy changes.

The bill requires TDCJ to adopt a policy not later than October 1, 2001
that provides for an exit interview of each institutional division employee
who terminates employment with TDCJ. Employee participation in the
interview process is voluntary, and TDCJ is not required to conduct an exit
interview of an employee who is terminated against the employee's will.
The bill requires TDCJ to analyze responses to interviews conducted on the
basis of the age, gender, race or ethnicity, years of service, rank, and
duty locations of the responding employees.   

The bill requires TDCJ to submit to the board an annual report on the use
of the grievance procedure, and specifies information the report must
include. 

 The bill requires TDCJ to develop a career ladder program for the
institutional division to retain professionally qualified employees.  The
bill sets forth factors on which the program must base the advancement of
an employee.  The bill requires TDCJ to promote a correctional officer
candidate to the level of Texas Law Enforcement Correctional Officer upon
completion of the hours of training and the years of experience required by
TDCJ .  The bill sets forth requirements for the development of training
programs and employee participation.     

The bill requires TDCJ to implement policies mandating bimonthly
labor-management meetings between each regional director or the assistant
regional director and employees selected by TDCJ or employees chosen by
employees selected by TDCJ.  At each bimonthly labor-management meeting,
both parties are required to have an opportunity to improve
labor-management relations by addressing issues selected by the parties.
The bill requires a regional director to submit a report at the conclusion
of each bimonthly meeting to the director of the institutional division
describing the progress of the meetings.   

The bill requires the director of the institutional division to conduct
statewide meetings with employee representatives.   

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 3185 modifies the original bill by replacing references to the
Texas Board of Criminal Justice (board) with the Texas Department of
Criminal Justice (TDCJ).  The substitute requires TDCJ in conjunction with
the board's human resources committee or any other committee created by the
board to carry out the functions of the human resources committee
(committee) to review the implementation of and make recommendations for
rule and policy changes.  The substitute removes the requirement of the
board to create a professional standards and labor oversight committee.
The substitute requires TDCJ in conjunction with the committee to submit a
report to the legislature biennially regarding the rule and policy changes.
The substitute adds the requirement that TDCJ is to adopt a policy that
provides for an exit interview of each institutional division employee who
terminates employment with TDCJ, provides that employee participation in
the interview process is voluntary and that TDCJ is not required to conduct
an exit interview of an employee who is terminated against the employee's
will.  The substitute deletes certain procedures for addressing
employment-related grievances, and provisions regarding time restraints of
an employee-related grievance, representation for an employee in an
employment-related grievance, binding arbitration agreements in an
employment-related grievance, confidentiality of a grievance action, and
retaliation for filing a grievance related action.  The substitute modifies
the schedule for labor-management meetings from monthly to bimonthly, and
provides that such meetings are between each regional director or assistant
regional director rather than each district supervisor or the supervisor's
designee and employees selected by TDCJ or employees chosen by employees
selected by TDCJ rather than employees selected in a process established by
the board by rule or any representatives chosen by the selected employees.
The substitute changes the provision that a district supervisor is required
to submit to the director of the institutional division (director) a report
describing the progress of the meetings every third month, and instead
requires a regional director to submit a report to the director at the
conclusion of each bimonthly meeting.  The substitute removes the
rulemaking provision regarding the process for employee selection for
labor-management meetings.