Articles Discussing General Topics Under Tennessee Labor & Employment Law.

On April 24, 2019, Dallas became the third city in the Lone Star State to adopt an ordinance requiring all private employers to provide paid sick leave to employees, following Austin and San Antonio.

A new Tennessee law, effective July 1, 2017, imposes new reporting requirements on healthcare practitioner1 (HCP) employers. Under the new reporting law, in certain circumstances, HCP employers must “promptly” report to the state HCP employees with confirmed (positive) drug test results2 or those who refuse to submit to any work-related or directed drug test, including but not limited to pre-employment drug tests. The law does not apply to confirmed positive alcohol tests or refusals to submit to alcohol testing. The law does not contain an affirmative reporting obligation requiring reporting of information to other employers, although it does create a mechanism for certain employers to share information.

Executive Summary: Individuals performing the main function of your business cannot be classified as independent contractors in Tennessee. At least, that’s what the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled recently when analyzing whether the Tennessee Department of Workforce Development properly held a pet groomer liable for unpaid unemployment taxes from 2006 through 2011.

In its latest session, the Tennessee Legislature passed four bills that affect Tennessee public and private employers’ workplace policies and procedures.

Executive Summary: Governor Haslam recently signed several bills into law that will impact Tennessee employees and employers in both the public and private sectors. Employers may wish to reassess certain policies and practices in light of these changes.

An amendment to the Tennessee’s data breach notification statute has eliminated a provision requiring notice only in the event of a breach of unencrypted personal information. Accordingly, it appears that Tennessee is the first state in the country to require breach notification regardless of whether the affected information was encrypted. The amendment (S.B. 2005), signed by Governor Bill Haslam on March 24, 2016, will take effect on July 1, 2016.

On March 24, 2016, Tennessee’s breach notification statute was amended when Governor Bill Hallam signed into law S.B. 2005.

The Tennessee Senate has approved passage of a bill that will permit public college and university employees and students holding handgun carry permits to transport or store a firearm or ammunition in their own vehicles on campus without facing any adverse or disciplinary action. The House has passed a nearly identical companion bill. If the Senate adopts the House version, the bill will go to Governor Bill Haslam, who likely will sign it into law.

Executive summary: Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has signed legislation providing new employment protections for handgun owners. As discussed in more detail in our March 25, 2015 Alert, the new law creates a private right of action for any employee who is terminated solely for storing a firearm or ammunition in the employee’s vehicle while parked in the employer’s parking lot. The law represents yet another outgrowth of the controversial “Guns in Trunks” legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2013.

A whistleblower claims he was fired because he complained about wrongful conduct, and sues for retaliation. For the claim to survive, does it matter who hears the whistleblower’s whistle? The Tennessee Supreme Court has answered this question with an emphatic “yes.” In Charles Haynes v. Formac Stables, Inc.,1 the court dismissed a whistleblower’s claim because he complained only to the person who committed the illegal conduct. The court held that in order for the whistleblower to state a valid retaliation claim, he must reveal the illegal conduct to someone other than the alleged wrongdoer.

Executive summary: On March 23, 2015, members in both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to pass new employment protections for handgun owners. The bill creates a private right of action for any employee who is terminated solely for storing a firearm or ammunition in the employee’s vehicle while parked in the employer’s parking lot. This legislation, which now awaits the Governor’s signature, represents yet another outgrowth of the controversial “Guns in Trunks” legislation passed by the General Assembly in 2013.

While more than two dozen states have introduced workplace anti-bullying bills, Tennessee is the first state to enact workplace anti-bullying law.

A university’s former maintenance employee presented material evidence for a jury to infer that his supervisor knew he had filed a lawsuit for employment discrimination when she engaged in retaliatory conduct, a unanimous Tennessee Supreme Court has held, reinstating a jury verdict for the employee. Ferguson v. Middle Tennessee State University, No. M2012-00890-SC-R11-CV (Oct. 29, 2014). The Court also remanded the case to the Court of Appeals for a review of the university’s argument that the $3 million compensatory damages award to the employee was excessive, given that the lower court did not review the issue of damages.

Executive Summary: Accessing information about employees and applicants via their social media accounts just got a bit more complicated in Tennessee. This past legislative session, the Tennessee General Assembly passed the “Employee Online Privacy Act of 2014” aimed at protecting employees and applicants from being forced by an employer to turn over access to their social media accounts. The Act makes Tennessee part of a growing number of states enacting similar legislation. Although the Act, which takes effect January 1, 2015, can be seen as a win for employee privacy, it is not an absolute bar to employers using social media as a tool to monitor their employees’ and applicants’ actions. The law still leaves several permissible purposes for which employers may utilize social media in the employment context.

Rejecting a former employee’s assertion that the “excessive” and “prohibitive” costs of arbitration made his employment agreement’s arbitration clause unconscionable, the Tennessee Court of Appeals at Knoxville has affirmed an order directing arbitration in a wrongful termination action brought under the Tennessee Public Protection Act and the Tennessee Human Rights Act. Trigg v. Little Six Corp., No. E2013-01929-COA-R9-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. July 28, 2014).