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Texas State Employees Union v. Texas Workforce Commission3/2/2000
This is an appeal of a trial-court order granting appellees their plea to the jurisdiction, thereby dismissing each of appellants' causes of action. In ten issues, appellants, former employees of the Texas Workforce Commission, contend that the trial court erred in ruling that their claims were jurisdictionally barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity and a lack of standing. Concluding that the trial court erred in dismissing appellants' causes of action for lack of jurisdiction, we will reverse the trial court's order and remand this cause for further proceedings.
BACKGROUND
This suit arises out of the complaints of former employees of the Texas Workforce Commission (the "Commission") who lost their jobs as a result of the Commission's decision to privatize several of the State's workforce-development programs. The Commission was established in 1995 to operate Texas's integrated workforce-development system that had been created by consolidating the State's various job training and employment-related programs. See Act of May 26, 1995, 74th Leg., R.S., ch. 655, § 301.001, 1995 Tex. Gen. Laws 3543, 3581. It was also created to administer Texas's unemployment compensation program. See id.
In 1997, the Commission decided to overhaul its structure by transferring to the private sector the responsibility of administering several of the State's workforce-development programs. Specifically, it chose to shift all authority over the administration of these programs to certain certified local workforce-development boards. In turn, these boards were required to hire private service providers that would directly administer these programs on a contractual basis. As a result, the Commission terminated many of the employees who had been assigned to work on the affected programs.
The Texas State Employees Union (the "Union") then filed suit against the Commission on behalf of the terminated employees, all of whom were members of the Union, complaining that the Commission had unlawfully granted public property-namely office space, computer equipment, and office supplies-to private entities in violation of the Texas Constitution. See Tex. Const. art. III, § 51; art. VIII, § 3; art. XVI, § 6(a). The Commission responded by filing a special exception and a plea to the jurisdiction, contending that the cause of action was barred by the doctrine of sovereign immunity and, furthermore, that appellants lacked standing to sue. Several amended petitions followed, as did further answers and pleas to the jurisdiction. Following the filing of appellants' fourth amended petition, the trial court dismissed the Union as a party, finding that the Union lacked standing to bring suit on behalf of the employees. Appellants thereafter amended their pleadings to substitute four terminated employees in place of the Union.
By the time appellants filed their sixth and final amended petition, the suit had been expanded to include three causes of action; appellants had also added as defendants the Council on Workforce & Economic Competitiveness, the Governor, and the Gulf Coast Local Workforce Development Board ("Gulf Coast") and the Coastal Bend Workforce Development Board ("Coastal Bend") (collectively, the "local development boards"). Appellants' pleadings alleged that: (1) the Commission had violated, and would continue to violate, the Texas Constitution by transferring state property to private entities without restricting the use of the property to state, rather than private, purposes; (2) the Commission had deprived appellants of a property interest in their continued employment, as well as their interest in participating in the State's retirement system, without due course of
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