Amends TCA Title 8.

This bill entitles an eligible state employee leave from work with pay for a period of time equal to 12 workweeks during a 12-month period: (A) If, because of birth, adoption, or placement through foster care, the employee is caring for a new minor child during the first year after the birth, adoption, or placement; or (B) To care for a child, grandparent, parent, spouse, or anyone related by blood or affinity whose close relationship with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship with a serious health condition. This leave will be in addition to leave granted to state employees in the present law provisions regarding annual, sick, and adoptive parents leave. This bill provides that an eligible employee: (1) Must provide the appropriate appointing authority with not less than 30 days' notice. If such employee learns of the need for leave less than 30 days in advance, the employee must give the notice as soon as reasonably possible; (2) Must be granted leave pursuant to item (A) above intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule only with the employer's approval and such leave must conclude within 12 months after the birth, adoption, or placement. Leave taken pursuant to item (B) above may be taken intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule as medically necessary. The taking of leave intermittently or on a reduced leave schedule pursuant to this item (2) must not result in a reduction in the total amount of leave to which the eligible employee is entitled under this bill beyond the amount of leave actually taken; and (3) Is entitled, if the employee exercises the employee's right to leave under this bill, upon the expiration of that leave, to be restored to the position held by the eligible employee when the leave commenced, or to a position with equivalent seniority, status, employment benefits, pay, and other terms and conditions of employment. If both caretakers are eligible employees, each caretaker receives leave under this bill, which may be taken concurrently, consecutively, or at different times. Leave under this bill used by an eligible employee cannot be charged against sick, annual, or other leave the employee may have accumulated, and leave granted for a covered purpose runs concurrently with the eligible employee's use of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act and the present law provision regarding leave for adoption, childbirth, and nursing an infant, as applicable. This bill requires: (1) Employers, during leave taken pursuant to this bill, to maintain health care benefits the eligible employee had prior to taking such leave for the duration of the leave as if the eligible employee had continued in employment continuously from the date the eligible employee commenced the leave until the date the leave terminated; provided, that the eligible employee continue to pay the eligible employee's share of the cost of the health benefits as required prior to the commencement of the leave; and (2) The department of human resources to establish procedures and policies implementing this bill with regard to executive branch agencies. For nonexecutive branch agencies, the equivalent of the agency's human resources office must establish such procedures and policies. Under this bill, it is unlawful for an employer or person to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of, or the attempt to exercise, a right protected under this bill. This bill prohibits an employer from taking retaliatory personnel action or otherwise discriminating against a person because the employee exercised rights protected under this bill. It is also unlawful for an employer to count paid leave under this bill as an act that may lead to or result in discipline, discharge, demotion, suspension, or other adverse action.