[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3949 Introduced in House (IH)]







109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3949

   To protect volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services 
   personnel responding to national emergencies from termination or 
                demotion in their places of employment.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 29, 2005

 Mr. Castle (for himself, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Weldon of Pennsylvania, and 
Mr. Pascrell) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To protect volunteer firefighters and emergency medical services 
   personnel responding to national emergencies from termination or 
                demotion in their places of employment.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Volunteer Firefighter and EMS 
Personnel Job Protection Act ''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act--
            (1) the term ``volunteer firefighter'' means an individual 
        who is a member in good standing of a qualified volunteer fire 
        department, as defined in section 150(e) of the Internal 
        Revenue Code of 1986;
            (2) the term ``volunteer emergency medical services'' means 
        emergency medical services performed on a voluntary basis for a 
        fire department or other emergency organization; and
            (3) the terms ``emergency'' and ``major disaster'' have the 
        meanings given such terms in section 102 of the Robert T. 
        Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 
        U.S.C. 5122).

SEC. 3. TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT OF VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS AND 
              EMERGENCY MEDICAL PERSONNEL PROHIBITED.

    (a) Termination Prohibited.--No person may be terminated, demoted, 
or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and 
conditions of employment because the employee, when acting as a 
volunteer firefighter or performing volunteer emergency medical 
services, is absent from or late to his or her employment in order to 
respond to an emergency or major disaster.
    (b) Limitation.--Subsection (a) shall not apply if such person is 
absent from his or her employment for the purposes described in 
subsection (a) for a period of more than 14 days per calendar year.
    (c) Withholding of Pay.--An employer may charge, against the 
employee's regular pay, any time that an employee loses from employment 
because of the employee's response to an emergency or major disaster in 
the course of performing his or her duties as a volunteer firefighter 
or performing volunteer emergency medical services.
    (d) Certification.--The employer may request the employee to 
provide the employer with a written verification from the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency official supervising the Federal response 
to the emergency or major disaster or a local or State official 
managing the emergency or major disaster stating that the employee 
responded to the emergency or major disaster in an official capacity 
and stating the time and dates of the emergency or major disaster.
    (e) Reasonable Notice Required.--An employee who may be absent from 
or late to his or her employment in order to respond to an emergency or 
major disaster in the course of performing his or her duties as a 
volunteer firefighter or performing volunteer emergency medical 
services shall make a reasonable effort to notify his or her employer 
that he or she may be absent or late and shall continue to provide such 
reasonable notifications over the course of his or her absence.

SEC. 4. RIGHT OF ACTION.

    (a) Right of Action.--A person who has been terminated, demoted, or 
in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions 
of employment in violation of this Act may bring in a district court of 
the United States of appropriate jurisdiction, a civil action against 
his or her employer who violated this Act.
    (b) Damages.--The employee may seek reinstatement to his or her 
former position, payment of back wages, reinstatement of fringe 
benefits, and, where seniority rights are granted, reinstatement of 
seniority rights.
    (c) Limitation.--The employee must commence such an action within 1 
year after the date of the violation of this Act.
                                 <all>