§ 122.001.Juror's Right to Reemployment; Notice of Intent to Return

The second of two competing texts of this section, and the narrower one.

This is the version amended by House Bill 504, enacted in the same 2019 session as the Senate bill that produced the other text. Each bill amended the section as it then stood, neither accounted for the other, and both took effect on the same day.

A private employer may not terminate the employment of a permanent employee because the employee serves as a juror or grand juror.

Three differences from the other text stand out, and each narrows the protection.

The employer must be private. The other version says "an employer" without qualification.

Only termination is prohibited. The other version also reaches a threat to discharge, intimidation, and coercion — so conduct short of dismissal violates that text and not this one.

There is no reference to attendance or to courts of the United States. This text turns on serving as a juror or grand juror.

One difference runs the other way. This text expressly covers a grand juror, which the Senate bill’s text does not — and grand jury service can last far longer than a trial.

That matters because the rest of the chapter is built on this version’s vocabulary. The damages, criminal penalty, contempt and defence sections all speak of "juror or grand juror", and all four were amended by the same House bill.

Subsection (b) gives the same right to return to the employment held when summoned, on actual notice as soon as practical after release.

An employee has a practical answer to the conflict: give the notice promptly, which both versions require, and rely on whichever text the conduct violates.