The Texas Workforce Commission recently published a notice that employers are required to post in conspicuous locations in their workplaces informing employees about reporting workplace violence or suspicious activity.

Quick Hits

• Pursuant to Texas Labor Code Chapter 104A, Texas employers are required to post a notice to employees in English and Spanish related to reporting instances of workplace violence or suspicious activity.
• The Texas Workforce Commission has issued the prescribed notice.
• The notice is required to be posted in a conspicuous place in the workplace in sufficient locations to be convenient to all employees. Employers should also post the notice in electronic locations for remote employees.

In June 2023, Texas enacted House Bill (HB) No. 915, which added Chapter 104A, “Reporting Workplace Violence,” to the Texas Labor Code, requiring all employers, regardless of size, to “post a notice to employees of the contact information for reporting instances of workplace violence or suspicious activity to the [Texas] Department of Public Safety.” HB 915 went into effect on September 1, 2023.

The law also requires employers to post the notice (1) “in a conspicuous place in the employer’s place of business”; (2) “in sufficient locations to be convenient to all employees”; and (3) “in English and Spanish, as appropriate.”

Following a brief comment period, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) has now published the new notice on its website. The notice specifies that “[e]mployees have the right to make a report anonymously.”

Texas healthcare facilities will also be required to adopt workplace violence prevention plans by September 1, 2024.

Key Takeaways

Texas’s new notice-posting law related to reporting workplace violence has taken effect and the TWC has issued the prescribed notice. As such, Texas employers are required to post the notice, which may include posting not only in physical locations in the workplace for in-person employees, but also in electronic locations for remote employees.