(a) It is not unlawful for an employer, employment agency or labor organization to:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 4-21-407

  • detention: includes the duties of employees assigned to guard individuals incarcerated in any penal institution. See Tennessee Code 4-21-407
  • Employer: means the state, or any political or civil subdivision thereof, and persons employing eight (8) or more persons within the state, or any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
  • Employment agency: means any person or agency, public or private, regularly undertaking, with or without compensation, to procure employees for an employer or to procure for employees opportunities to work for an employer. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
  • Firefighter: means an employee, the duties of whose position are primarily to perform work directly connected with the control and extinguishment of fires or the maintenance and use of firefighting apparatus and equipment, including an employee engaged in this activity who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position. See Tennessee Code 4-21-407
  • Labor organization: includes any organization that exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of collective bargaining or of dealing with employers concerning grievances, terms or conditions of employment, or for other mutual aid or protection in relation to employment or any agent acting for organizations. See Tennessee Code 4-21-102
  • Law enforcement officer: means an employee, the duties of whose position are primarily the investigation, apprehension or detention of individuals suspected or convicted of offenses against state criminal laws, including an employee engaged in this activity who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position. See Tennessee Code 4-21-407
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Discriminate in employment on the basis of age where age is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business, or where the differentiation is based on reasonable factors other than age; or
(2) Observe the terms of a bona fide seniority system or any bona fide employee benefit plan, such as a retirement, pension or insurance plan, that is not a subterfuge to evade the purposes of this chapter, except that no such employee benefit plan shall excuse the failure to hire any individual, and no such seniority system or employee benefit plan shall require or permit the involuntary retirement of any individual specified by § 4-21-101(b) because of the age of such individual, unless otherwise provided by law.
(b) The prohibitions imposed by this chapter relating to age discrimination in employment shall be limited to individuals who are at least forty (40) years of age.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter relating to age discrimination in employment, it is not unlawful for an employer, employment agency or labor organization subject to the other provisions of this chapter to observe the terms of a bona fide seniority system or any bona fide employee benefit plan, such as a retirement, pension or insurance plan, that is not a subterfuge to evade the purposes of this chapter, except that no such employee benefit plan shall excuse the failure to hire any individual, and no such seniority system or employee benefit plan shall require or permit the involuntary retirement of any individual covered by this chapter because of the age of such individual.
(d) Nothing in this chapter relating to age discrimination shall be construed to prohibit compulsory retirement of any employee who has attained sixty-five (65) years of age and who, for the two-year period immediately before retirement, is employed in a bona fide executive or a high policymaking position, if such employee is entitled to an immediate nonforfeitable annual retirement benefit from a pension, profit-sharing, savings or deferred compensation plan, or any combination of such plans, of the employer of such employee, that equals, in the aggregate, at least forty-four thousand dollars ($44,000).
(e)

(1) It is not unlawful for an employer subject to this chapter to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual because of such individual’s age if such action is taken:

(A) With respect to the employment of an individual as a firefighter or a law enforcement officer and the individual has attained the age of hiring or retirement in effect under applicable state or local law on March 3, 1983; and
(B) Pursuant to a bona fide hiring or retirement plan that is not a subterfuge to evade the purposes of this chapter.
(2) For the purposes of this part, unless the context otherwise requires:

(A) “Firefighter” means an employee, the duties of whose position are primarily to perform work directly connected with the control and extinguishment of fires or the maintenance and use of firefighting apparatus and equipment, including an employee engaged in this activity who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position; and
(B) “Law enforcement officer” means an employee, the duties of whose position are primarily the investigation, apprehension or detention of individuals suspected or convicted of offenses against state criminal laws, including an employee engaged in this activity who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position. For the purposes of this subdivision (e)(2)(B), “detention” includes the duties of employees assigned to guard individuals incarcerated in any penal institution.
(3) This subsection (e) shall not apply with respect to any cause of action arising under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ( 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq.), as in effect before January 1, 1987.
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