A landmark 2021 law is reshaping workplace accountability in Texas — and a high-stakes El Paso appellate case could make individual supervisors pay out of their own pockets.

EL PASO — When Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 45 into law on May 30, 2021, workers’ rights advocates celebrated a long-overdue breakthrough: employees at businesses with even a single worker finally gained protection from workplace sexual harassment under Texas state law. But the legislation may have delivered something even more powerful — a legal hook to hold individual supervisors personally accountable.

Before S.B. 45, only companies with 15 or more employees could be sued for sexual harassment under state law. The new law, codified at Sections 21.141 and 21.142 of the Texas Labor Code, redefined ‘employer’ to include any ‘person who acts directly in the interests of an employer in relation to an employee.’ For harassment survivors, that language is a game-changer — it means the manager who watched, ignored, or enabled abuse may no longer hide behind the company name.

Section 21.142 goes further, making it an unlawful employment practice if an employer ‘knew or should have known’ that sexual harassment was occurring and failed to take ‘immediate and appropriate corrective action.’ That standard — tougher than the old ‘prompt remedial action’ defense — signals the Legislature’s intent to force decisive action, not bureaucratic delay, when a worker comes forward.

Why Individual Liability Matters for Survivors The word ‘person’ in the statute is not an accident. As workers’ rights attorneys and legal analysts have noted, if the Legislature had intended to limit liability to corporations, it would have said so. Comparable language in the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act has long been interpreted to permit suits against individual supervisors. Every federal court in Texas to examine the question has declined to dismiss cases on those grounds.

For survivors, the stakes are real. A company can settle a lawsuit, change leadership, and move on. A supervisor held personally liable faces their own financial exposure — a consequence advocates argue is the only incentive powerful enough to change workplace culture from the top down.

The Walgreens Case: A Landmark in the Making

The case that may settle this question is now pending before the Eighth Court of Appeals in El Paso. In re Walgreen Co. and Robert Alvarez involves an employee who reported workplace sexual harassment — and was then terminated. The plaintiff is represented by Baeza Law Firm, an El Paso-based firm at the forefront of advancing worker protections under the 2021 law.

The trial court denied Walgreens’ motion to dismiss and ordered the company to pay the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees — an early signal that the law’s broad language carries real teeth. Walgreens and its district manager are now asking the appeals court to foreclose individual liability entirely. Baeza Law Firm is fighting to hold that ground on behalf of the plaintiff.

The appellate ruling could be the first authoritative Texas state precedent establishing whether supervisors can be held personally responsible under Section 21.142 — a decision that would ripple across every Texas workplace.

A Leading Voice on the Issue

Jonathan Baeza of Baeza Law Firm is emerging as one of the state’s leading advocates on this issue. He is slated to speak on individual supervisor liability at the Texas Employment Lawyers Association (TELA) Annual CLE Conference in February 2026, and again at the University of Texas CLE in June 2026. His presentations are expected to equip plaintiffs’ attorneys across Texas with the tools to pursue and protect individual liability claims as the law continues to develop.

What Harassed Workers Should Know

If you experienced sexual harassment at a Texas workplace, the 2021 law significantly expanded your rights — regardless of your employer’s size. You now have 300 days from the date of the harassment to file a complaint with the Texas Workforce Commission. Document every incident, every report you made, and every response — or silence — you received. The supervisor who failed to protect you may face personal legal consequences, not just the company.

For too long, Texas workers at small companies had no recourse and powerful supervisors had no skin in the game. That era may finally be ending.