January 16, 2013 - Texas Workforce Commission

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1 allowed to return to the job.
2 When we first began analyzing this, we
3 incorrectly assumed that an individual would have to
4 make an election of remedies, because we're familiar
5 with that concept under Chapter 21. We believe that
6 an individual would have to choose between a remedy
7 under state law or under federal law. The federal law
8 protections are found in the Uniform Services
9 Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, otherwise
10 referred to as USERRA, U-S-E-R-R-A.
11 And at this time, certainly subject to
12 interpretation by the courts, my belief is that an
13 individual who is called to a succession of both state
14 active duty and federal active duty would be able to
15 file a complaint with the Civil Rights Division. And
16 we would not need to consider whether that individual
17 had any rights under federal law to determine whether
18 that individual could proceed through our process.
19 CHAIRMAN ANDERSON: Because of the --
20 because of H -- HB 1178?
21 MR. BABIAK: Exactly. Yes, there is --
22 there is nothing in state law that makes any reference
23 to rights under federal law that would limit the state
24 law rights based on our reading right now.
25 CHAIRMAN ANDERSON: So, they would only