Senate Bill No. 694
(By Senators Unger and Edgell)
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[Introduced March 21, 2005; referred to the Committee
on Labor; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto two new articles, designated §21-5G-1 and
§21-5G-2, all relating to prohibiting dismissing certain
emergency workers under certain conditions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §21-5G-1 and §21-5G-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931,
as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5G. DISMISSAL OF EMERGENCY WORKERS.
§21-5G-1. Short title.
This article may be cited as "An Act Prohibiting Dismissing
Certain Emergency Workers under Certain Conditions."
§21-5G-2. Prohibitions against terminating certain emergency
workers.
(a) An employer may not terminate an employee who is a
volunteer firefighter, rescue squad member, emergency medical technician, peace officer or a member of an emergency management
agency, because that employee, when acting as a volunteer
firefighter, rescue squad member, emergency medical technician,
peace officer or a member of an emergency management agency, is
absent or late to the employee's employment in order to respond to
an emergency prior to the time the employee is to report to his or
her place of employment.
(b) An employer may charge any time that an employee who is a
volunteer firefighter, rescue squad member, emergency medical
technician, peace officer or a member of an emergency management
agency loses from employment because of the employee's response to
an emergency, against the employee's regular pay.
(c) An employer may request an employee who loses time from
the employee's employment to respond to an emergency to provide the
employer with a written statement from the supervisor or acting
supervisor of the volunteer fire department, rescue squad,
emergency medical services agency, law-enforcement agency or the
director of the emergency management agency stating that the
employee responded to an emergency and listing the time and date of
the emergency.
(d) Any employee that is terminated in violation of the
provisions of this section may bring a civil action against his or
her employer. The employee may seek reinstatement to the
employee's former position, payment of back wages, reinstatement of fringe benefits and where seniority rights are granted, the
reinstatement of seniority rights. In order to recover, the
employee shall file this action within one year of the date of the
violation of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit dismissing
certain emergency workers under certain conditions.
This article is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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