Can I be fired for reporting harassment at work in Texas?

What Texas Labor Code section 21.055 protects

Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code is the state's employment discrimination law. Section 21.055 is the retaliation provision. An employer commits an unlawful employment practice if it retaliates or discriminates against a person who, under the chapter, opposes a discriminatory practice, makes or files a charge, files a complaint, or testifies, assists, or participates in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing.

That last category is wide. You are covered if you reported the conduct yourself. You are also covered if you were the coworker who gave a statement about what happened to someone else. The Texas Workforce Commission says the same thing in plain language on its own site: your employer cannot punish you, treat you differently, or harass you because you reported job discrimination or helped someone else report it, even if it turns out the conduct was not illegal.

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How long do you have to file in Texas?

Section 21.202 sets the state deadline. A complaint must be filed no later than the 180th day after the date the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred. Subsection (a-1) gives 300 days to a complaint alleging sexual harassment. Subsection (b) is the part that catches people: the commission shall dismiss an untimely complaint. There is no discretion in that sentence.

A retaliation complaint under section 21.055 is not itself a sexual harassment allegation, so treat 180 days as your working deadline unless a lawyer who has seen your facts tells you otherwise. The federal route runs on a separate calendar. The EEOC's base window is 180 days, extended to 300 days where a state or local agency enforces a law prohibiting the same kind of discrimination. Texas has one, the TWC Civil Rights Division.

If your employer is a federal agency rather than a Texas company, none of the above is your route. Chapter 21 is state law and the charge process is not open to you. The EEOC says federal employees and federal job applicants generally must contact an agency EEO Counselor within 45 days, extendable only in certain circumstances. That is a much shorter window than anything else on this page.

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Does the 15-employee rule apply to a retaliation claim?

Chapter 21 defines an employer as a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who has 15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year. Counties, municipalities, state agencies, and state instrumentalities are covered regardless of how many people they employ.

Texas does have a one-employee rule, but it is narrower than most people assume. It lives in Subchapter C-1, added in 2021, and its definitions section opens with the words "in this subchapter." Subchapter C-1 covers the sexual harassment claim itself. The retaliation prohibition in section 21.055 sits in Subchapter B, which does not carry that definition.

On the text, the better reading is that a section 21.055 retaliation claim uses the chapter's general 15-employee definition even when the thing you reported was sexual harassment. Be careful how far you take that. We are not aware of controlling Texas appellate authority since the 2021 amendments settling whether retaliation arising from a Subchapter C-1 sexual harassment complaint is measured against the 15-employee threshold or the one-employee threshold. It is an open question, not a decided one.

What matters practically is that a small employer is not automatically out of reach. Even where the retaliation coverage is disputed, an employer with fewer than 15 employees can still face the underlying Subchapter C-1 sexual harassment claim, because that subchapter defines employer as a person who employs one or more employees. If your employer is small, do not write the case off. Take the headcount and the dates to a lawyer early and let them work out which claims survive.

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The Texas route: the agency first, then court

Texas does not let you walk straight into court on a Chapter 21 claim. You start with a written complaint, made under oath, filed with the commission under section 21.201. If the commission dismisses your complaint, or has not resolved it before the 181st day after you filed, section 21.208 requires it to tell you in writing by certified mail.

You then request a written notice of your right to file a civil action under section 21.252. Once you receive that notice, section 21.254 gives you 60 days to sue. Section 21.256 sets the outer wall: no civil action later than the second anniversary of the date the complaint was filed. Two clocks can be running at the same time, and missing either one can end a case that is otherwise strong.

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What a Texas court can order

Section 21.258 lets a court stop the conduct by injunction and order equitable relief. The statute lists examples: hiring or reinstating with or without back pay, upgrading an employee with or without pay, restoring union membership, and paying court costs.

Section 21.2585 allows compensatory and punitive damages for an intentional violation, and it caps the two combined for each complainant by employer size: $50,000 where the employer has fewer than 101 employees, $100,000 for more than 100 and fewer than 201, $200,000 for more than 200 and fewer than 501, and $300,000 above 500. Back pay and interest on back pay are not counted inside that cap.

One carve-out matters if you work in the public sector. Punitive damages are not available against a governmental entity. The statute allows a complainant to recover them "against a respondent, other than a respondent that is a governmental entity." So if your employer is a city, a county, a school district, a state agency or a state instrumentality, plan the case around the compensatory and equitable relief instead.

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