2008 Tennessee Employment Legislation Review

Unlike last year's Nonsmoker Protection Act, there

were no major headline grabbers in the employment legislation

that was passed by the Tennessee General Assembly this session.

However, the legislature did consider several bills affecting

Tennessee employers. The following is a summary of the

more significant bills enacted into law.

Public Chapters 642 And 695 (Garnishments).

Public Chapter 642 amends Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA)

Section 26-2-203 to provide that an employer has 10 business

days, instead of 10 days, to file an answer to a garnishment.

According to the amendment, a business day is any day other

than a Saturday, Sunday, legal holiday, or day on which the

appropriate court clerk's office is closed.

Public Chapter 695 makes relatively minor adjustments to the

official form for calculating garnishment payments and adds a

provision at the end of the form requiring the employer to

certify "under penalty of perjury" that the

information provided is correct.

Public Chapter 650 (Political

Activity). TCA Section 2-19-206 prevents government

employees from displaying campaign literature, banners,

placards, streamers, stickers, signs, or other political or

campaign advertising on government-owned property. Public

Chapter 650 amends TCA Section 2-19-206 to allow an employee to

display a political decal or bumper sticker on his personal

vehicle while it's parked on government property.

Public Chapter 706 (Disability). There are

a number of Tennessee statutes, including employment statutes,

that refer to the terms "handicap, handicaps, and

handicapped." Public Chapter 706 changes those terms to

"disability, disabilities, and disabled."

Public Chapter 791 (Volunteer

Firefighters). TCA Section 50-1-307 already provides

volunteer firefighters protection from losing their jobs when

they're called to respond to a fire. Public Chapter 791

adds TCA Section 50-1-309 to state that a volunteer firefighter

"may" be permitted to leave work to respond to a fire

call without loss of pay, vacation time, sick time, or earned

overtime accumulation. Since the term "may" is used,

and in light of the provisions of TCA Section 50-1-307, it

appears that you aren't required to provide a volunteer

firefighter his pay, vacation time, sick leave, or earned

overtime accumulation while he's away from work fighting a

fire.

The new provision goes on to state that a volunteer

firefighter who's called to fight a fire during his regular

work hours "may" be permitted to...

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