#WorkforceWednesday: OSHA ETS in Review, Texas Vaccine Mandate Ban, Health Premium Incentives - Employment Law This Week®
What Can Businesses Do After Texas Lifts the Mask Mandate?
On June 22, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA or the Texas AI Act) into law. The new law goes into effect January 1, 2026. The law places obligations...more
With Governor Abbott signing House Bill 19 into law on June 9, Texas joins more than two dozen US states with a specialized business court system designed to preside over specific high-value business and commercial disputes....more
In new legislation signed today by Governor Abbott, Texas has revamped its Court system for resolving business disputes with the creation of new trial and appellate courts with judges to be appointed by the governor with the...more
On May 25, 2023, the Texas Legislature passed HB 19, legislation that creates specialized business courts. The bill now will make its way to the Governor’s desk for consideration. Here is what you need to know now:...more
On Friday, May 12, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would create a specialized business court to oversee complex civil litigation. The state senators voted 24 to 6 to approve H.B. 19, which was passed by the Texas House...more
On November 4, 2021, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced its much-anticipated COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS). The ETS was published in the Federal Register...more
Employer backlash stopped it . . . for now. The Texas Legislature ended its third Special Session this week without passing a bill to enact Gov. Greg Abbot's (R) Executive Order prohibiting employers in the state from...more
Earlier this week, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an Executive Order immediately restricting entities in the state – including employers – from compelling any individual to receive a COVID-19 vaccination if that individual...more
On October 11, 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued Executive Order GA-40, which states that no entity in Texas can “compel” any individual, including any employee or consumer, to receive a COVID-19 vaccination who objects...more
Texas Governor Greg Abbott just raised the stakes in the inevitable tide of litigation about President Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates by issuing an Executive Order banning vaccine mandates in Texas. We expect other states...more
Effective September 1, 2021, any employer that employs “one or more employees” or that “acts directly in the interests of an employer in relation to an employee” will be considered an employer under Texas law and subject to a...more
The Texas Legislature, which meets every other year, pushed a change to its data breach notification law at the end of the session in late May, and yesterday Governor Greg Abbott signed the bill into law...more
On the heels of Florida’s highly publicized COVID-19 vaccine passport ban, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced on Tuesday via Twitter that he too had signed a law banning Texas businesses from requiring vaccine passports...more