New Law A Day: Tennessee's Volunteer Firefighter Leave Act

The job of a volunteer firefighter can be thankless at times. But imagine getting fired from your day job because you wanted to help save someone's house. That's a predicament Tennessee volunteer firefighters wont have to worry about thanks to protection given them in the latest legislative session.

Previously, the law prohibited employers from terminating employees who are volunteer firefighters solely because the employee, when acting as a volunteer firefighter, is absent or late to work because they were responding to an emergency.

A new law that took effect July 1st allows employees who serve as volunteer firefighters to leave work early to respond to fire calls without loss of pay, vacation time, sick leave, or earned overtime accumulation. Before leaving, the firefighter must receive authorization from their employer. The employee may also take off the next scheduled work period within 12 hours following a response to a fire call, if the employee assisted in fighting the fire for more than four hours.

The new law comes from SB4130