HB0073 • 2026

Public Employee Retaliatory Action Amendments

Labor

Enacted

This bill passed the Legislature and reached final enactment based on the latest official action.

Sponsor: Rep. Walter, R. Neil
Last action: 2026-03-17
Official status: Governor Signed
Effective date: Not listed

Plain English Breakdown

Using official source text because the generated explanation was unavailable or could not be confirmed against the official bill text.

Public Employee Retaliatory Action Amendments

This bill amends the Utah Protection of Public Employees Act.

What This Bill Does

This bill amends the Utah Protection of Public Employees Act.

Limits and Unknowns

This entry is temporarily using official source text because the generated explanation could not be confirmed against the official bill text during the last sync.

Bill History

2026-03-17 Lieutenant Governor's office for filing
Governor Signed
2026-03-12 Clerk of the House
House/ received enrolled bill from Printing
2026-03-12 Executive Branch - Governor
House/ to Governor
2026-03-11 Clerk of the House
Enrolled Bill Returned to House or Senate
2026-03-11 Clerk of the House
House/ enrolled bill to Printing
2026-03-06 Legislative Research and General Counsel / Enrolling
Bill Received from House for Enrolling
2026-03-06 Legislative Research and General Counsel / Enrolling
Draft of Enrolled Bill Prepared
2026-03-05 House Speaker
House/ received from Senate
2026-03-05 Legislative Research and General Counsel / Enrolling
House/ signed by Speaker/ sent for enrolling
2026-03-05 Senate President
Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension
2026-03-05 House Speaker
Senate/ signed by President/ returned to House
2026-03-05 House Speaker
Senate/ to House
2026-03-05 Senate 2nd Reading Calendar
Senate/ uncircled
2026-03-04 Senate 2nd Reading Calendar
Senate/ circled
2026-03-04 Senate 2nd Reading Calendar
Senate/ placed on 2nd Reading Calendar
2026-02-04 Senate 2nd Reading Calendar
Senate/ 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension
2026-02-04 Senate 3rd Reading Calendar
Senate/ 3rd reading
2026-02-04 Senate 3rd Reading Calendar
Senate/ passed 2nd reading
2026-02-04 Senate 3rd Reading Calendar Table
Senate/ placed on 3rd Reading Calendar table
2026-01-29 Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee
Senate/ committee report favorable
2026-01-29 Senate 2nd Reading Calendar
Senate/ placed on 2nd Reading Calendar
2026-01-28 Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee
Senate Comm - Favorable Recommendation
2026-01-28 Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee
Senate/ to standing committee
2026-01-26 Senate Rules Committee
Senate/ 1st reading (Introduced)
2026-01-23 House 3rd Reading Calendar for House bills
House/ 3rd reading
2026-01-23 Senate Secretary
House/ passed 3rd reading
2026-01-23 Senate Secretary
House/ to Senate
2026-01-23 Waiting for Introduction in the Senate
Senate/ received from House
2026-01-20 House Rules Committee
House/ 1st reading (Introduced)
2026-01-20 House 3rd Reading Calendar for House bills
House/ 2nd reading
2026-01-20 House 3rd Reading Calendar for House bills
House/ Rules to 3rd Reading Calendar
2026-01-20 Clerk of the House
House/ received fiscal note from Fiscal Analyst
2026-01-19 Released
LFA/ fiscal note publicly available for HB0073
2026-01-14 Clerk of the House
House/ received bill from Legislative Research
2026-01-05 Version Sponsor
LFA/ fiscal note sent to sponsor for HB0073
2025-12-23 Legislative Research and General Counsel
Bill Numbered but not Distributed
2025-12-23 Legislative Fiscal Analyst
LFA/ bill assigned to staff for fiscal analysis for HB0073
2025-12-23 Legislative Fiscal Agency
LFA/ bill sent to agencies for fiscal input for HB0073
2025-12-23 Legislative Research and General Counsel
Numbered Bill Publicly Distributed

Official Summary Text

This bill amends the Utah Protection of Public Employees Act.

Current Bill Text

Read the full stored bill text

6
67-19a-101
1
Public Employee Retaliatory Action Amendments
2026 GENERAL SESSION
STATE OF UTAH
Chief Sponsor: R. Neil Walter
Senate Sponsor: Daniel McCay
LONG TITLE
General Description:
This bill amends the Utah Protection of Public Employees Act.
Highlighted Provisions:
This bill:
modifies the definition of retaliatory action by an employer to include making a
complaint, in violation of the whistle-blowing statute, to a person that licenses the
employee to practice a profession or perform other types of work.
Money Appropriated in this Bill:
None
Other Special Clauses:
None
Utah Code Sections Affected:
AMENDS:
67-19a-101
, as last amended by Laws of Utah 2022, Chapters 169, 274
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
Section 1. Section
67-19a-101
is amended to read:
67-19a-101
. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1)
"Abusive conduct" means the same as that term is defined in Section
67-26-102
.
(2)
"Administrator" means the person appointed under Section
67-19a-201
to head the
Career Service Review Office.
(3)
"Career service employee" means a person employed in career service as defined in
Section
63A-17-102
.
(4)
"Division" means the Division of Human Resource Management.
(5)
"Employer" means the state of Utah and all supervisory personnel vested with the
authority to implement and administer the policies of an agency.
(6)
"Excusable neglect" means harmless error, mistake, inadvertence, surprise, a failure to
discover evidence that, through due diligence, could not have been discovered in time to
meet the applicable time period, misrepresentation or misconduct by the employer, or
any other reason justifying equitable relief.
(7)
"Grievance" means:
(a)
a complaint by a career service employee concerning any matter touching upon the
relationship between the employee and the employer;
(b)
any dispute between a career service employee and the employer;
(c)
a complaint by a reporting employee that a public entity has engaged in retaliatory
action against the reporting employee

; and
(d)
a complaint that the employer subjected the employee to conditions that a reasonable
person would consider intolerable, including abusive conduct.
(8)
"Office" means the Career Service Review Office created under Section
67-19a-201
.
(9)
"Public entity" means the same as that term is defined in Section
67-21-2
.
(10)
"Reporting employee" means an employee of a public entity who alleges that the
public entity engaged in retaliatory action against the employee.
(11)
"Retaliatory action" means to do any of the following to an employee in violation of
Section
67-21-3
:
(a)
dismiss the employee;
(b)
reduce the employee's compensation;
(c)
fail to increase the employee's compensation by an amount that the employee is
otherwise entitled to or was promised;
(d)
fail to promote the employee if the employee would have otherwise been promoted;

or
(e)
make a complaint against the employee to a person that licenses the employee to
practice a profession or perform other types of work; or
(e)
(f)
threaten to take an action described in Subsections
(11)(a)
through
(d)
.
(11)(a)
through (e).
(12)
"Supervisor" means the person:
(a)
to whom an employee reports; or
(b)
who assigns and oversees an employee's work.
Section 2.
Effective Date.
This bill takes effect on
May 6, 2026
.
3-6-26 2:35 PM