Amends TCA Section 4-21-401; Section 50-1-307 and Section 50-1-309.

This bill extends to volunteer rescue squad workers certain present law leave provisions that apply to active volunteer firefighters, as discussed below. Under present law, any employee who is an active volunteer firefighter may be allowed to leave work in order to respond to fire calls during the employee's regular hours of employment, without loss of pay, vacation time, sick leave or earned overtime accumulation. Also, the employee may be allowed to take off the next scheduled work period within 12 hours following the response as a vacation day or sick leave without loss of pay, if the employee assisted in fighting the fire for more than four hours. If the employee is not entitled to a vacation day or sick leave day, then the employee may be permitted to take off the work period without pay. Also, under present law, any employee who is an active volunteer firefighter who worked for more than four hours the prior day or night as a volunteer firefighter in an emergency may be permitted to take off the next scheduled work period within 12 hours following the emergency as a vacation day or sick leave day without the loss of pay. If the employee is not entitled to a vacation day or sick leave day then the employee may be permitted to take off the work period without pay. This bill extends the above-described present law provisions to also apply to a volunteer rescue squad worker to allow the worker to respond to an emergency. Present law authorizes an employer to charge against the employee's regular pay any time that an employee who is a volunteer rescue squad worker responds to an emergency during the worker's regular work schedule. This bill removes the above authorization.