Florida and Texas recently enacted laws to ensure that state law pre-empts city and county ordinances, including minimum wage and workplace health and safety rules. This will make it easier for employers and individuals to challenge local ordinances in court.
For example, in Dallas and Austin, Texas, construction workers are entitled to a 10-minute rest break for every four hours worked in order to prevent heat illness. Austin also has a local law including gender identity among classes protected from discrimination. St. Petersburg, Fla., and Pinellas County, Fla., have ordinances to prevent wage theft.
"For employers that have employees in multiple cities across the state, complying with these different [local] regulatory requirements can be challenging and impose additional risk of noncompliance," said Jonathan Rector, an attorney with Littler in Dallas.
Texas Law
On June 14, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, HB 2127, which precludes municipalities and counties from adopting or enforcing an ordinance in certain fields, unless explicitly authorized by law. The fields include labor, occupations, finance, insurance, agriculture, natural resources and civil remedies. The new law is scheduled to take effect on Sept. 1.
On July 3, the city of Houston sued Texas, claiming the new law violates the state constitution. The new law would "repeal Texas constitutional home rule, impermissibly expand the scope of state pre-emption of local law, and...
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