2023 Tennessee Code › Title 50 - EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE (§§ 50-1-101 — 50-11-106) › Chapter 5 - CHILD LABOR (§§ 50-5-101 — 50-5-222) › Part 1 - CHILD LABOR ACT OF 1976 (§§ 50-5-101 — 50-5-115) › Section 50-5-102 - Part definitions

As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Agricultural work" includes farming in all its branches, and, among other things, includes the cultivation and tillage of the soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural or horticultural commodities, the raising of livestock or poultry, and any practices performed by a farmer or on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with the farming operations, including preparation for market, delivery to storage or to market or to carriers for transportation to market;
(2)
"Commissioner" means the commissioner of labor and workforce development or the commissioner's designated representative;
(3)
"Department" means the department of labor and workforce development;
(4)
"Director of schools" means the director of schools, or the director's designee, in the county, city, town or special school district in which a minor seeking employment resides or is to be employed; provided, that, with respect to a home school, as defined in §
49-6-3050
, "director of schools" means the director of the local education agency (LEA) where the child who has been registered as a home schooled child would otherwise attend; and with respect to a home school that teaches kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) where the parents are associated with an organization that conducts church-related schools, as defined in §
49-50-801
, the "director of schools" means the director of the church-related school;
(5)
"Employ" means to permit or suffer to work in employment or a gainful occupation;
(6)
"Employer" includes, but is not limited to, any individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, legal representative or any organized group of persons, acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee;
(7)
"Employment or gainful occupation" means any work engaged in for compensation in money or other valuable consideration, whether paid to the minor or some other person, including, but not limited to, work as a servant, agent, subagent or independent contractor;
(8)
"Minor" means a person of either sex under eighteen (18) years of age, unless otherwise provided;
(9)
"School days" means any day when normal classes are in session during the regular school year in the school district;
(10)
"School hours" means that period of time during a school day when school is in session and students are required to attend classes;
(11)
"Self-employed" means earning income directly from one's own business, trade or profession rather than as a specified salary or wages from an employer;
(12)
"Sexual conduct" means actual or simulated sexual intercourse, sodomy, sexual bestiality, masturbation, sadomasochistic abuse, excretion, or the exhibition of the male or female genitals;
(13)
"Week" means a fixed and regularly recurring period of seven (7) consecutive days; and
(14)
"Youth peddling" means the selling of merchandise by a minor under sixteen (16) years of age to customers at the customer's residence, at a customer's place of business, or in public places such as street corners or public transportation stations. "Youth peddling" does not include the activities of individuals who are self-employed or who volunteer to sell goods or services on behalf of not-for-profit organizations or governmental entities or for school functions.
Acts 1976, ch. 480, § 2; 1978, ch. 541, § 1; T.C.A., § 50-702; Acts 1998, ch. 781, § 2; 1999, ch. 203, § 1; 1999, ch. 520, § 41.