(a) The department of labor and workforce development is designated as the department of this state for the implementation and administration of the following federal programs relating to workforce development, including, but not limited to, the:

(1) Federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. § 3101 et seq.);

(2) Wagner-Peyser Act (29 U.S.C. § 49 et seq.); and

(3) The former Job Training Partnership Act (29 U.S.C. § 1501 et seq.) [repealed].

(b) The department shall cooperate with all authorities of the United States having powers or duties under the acts of congress mentioned in subsection (a), and shall do and perform all things necessary to secure to this state the benefits of such acts.

(c) Except for the supervisory responsibilities of the department of commerce and insurance, the department of labor and workforce development has full and complete charge of the administration of the Employment Security Law, compiled in title 50, chapter 7, and the state employment service for this state and has the administration of such other functions exercised by the department of employment security or the department of labor, or both, prior to June 17, 1999.

(d) The department of labor and workforce development has full and complete charge of the following:

(1) Adult basic education authorized by the Tennessee Rules, Regulations and Minimum Standards of the state board of education and administered by the department of education prior to June 17, 1999; and

(2) [Deleted by 2017 amendment.]

(e) The department of labor and workforce development shall coordinate the collaborative and cooperative activities and functions of other departments and state agencies and commissions, including, but not limited to, the department of education, the department of human services, the department of economic and community development, and the Tennessee higher education system, including colleges of applied technology and two-year post secondary institutions, to reduce duplication among employment and employment-related training activities in the state, and to maximize Tennessee's efforts to increase the skills of its workforce, foster economic growth through job placement and training services and provide high quality services to its customers including employees, families, business and industry, and particularly those individuals who are economically disadvantaged, dislocated workers, and others with substantial barriers to employment. The department of human services has the responsibility for contracting for the activities required of Families First participants pursuant to § 71-3-104.

(f) The department of labor and workforce development may do all acts and functions necessary or proper to carry out the powers expressly granted under this part, including, but not limited to, entering into agreements or contracts with local governmental units or corporations to provide services that assist the department in carrying out the duties imposed by this part or elsewhere in this code. It is not the intent of this part to create new state authority or to expand any existing authority to contract for services with private entities.

(g) The department of labor and workforce development has authority over such other functions generally, as the governor may lodge with the department by executive order duly signed and filed with the secretary of state.

(h) The department of labor and workforce development has the power to:

(1) Collect information on the subject of labor, its relation to capital, the hours of labor, and the earnings of laboring men and women, and the means of promoting their material, social, intellectual and moral prosperity;

(2) Visit and inspect, as often as necessary, during reasonable hours all shops, factories and mercantile establishments and other places where workers are employed and to cause the law to be enforced therein;

(3) Inspect the sanitary conditions, system of sewerage, system of heating, lighting and ventilation of rooms where persons are employed at labor and the means of exit in case of fire, or other disaster within or connected with shops and factories;

(4) Examine the machinery in and about workshops and factories, to see that it is not located so as to be dangerous to employees when engaged in their ordinary duties;

(5) Declare and prescribe what safety devices, safeguards or other means of protection are well adapted to render employees or places of employment safe;

(6) Order such reasonable changes in the construction, maintenance and repair of places of employment as shall render them safe;

(7) Require the performance of any act necessary for the protection of life, health and safety of employees;

(8) Collect and compile reliable data that, if disseminated, would tend to the development of the state by inducing population and capital to come within its borders; and

(9) Collect and compile accurate listings of employers who do not comply with § 50-6-405.

(i) Activities associated with Title V of the federal Older Americans Act of 1965 (42 U.S.C. § 3001, et seq.) shall be administered by the department. Funding to community providers pursuant to a grant or contract with the commission on aging and disability in effect on June 30, 2003, shall continue so long as federal funding continues and each provider continues to meet program goals and requirements and complies with any applicable audit and financial accountability laws.

(j)

(1) To the extent permitted by any federal law or rule, regulation, guideline, or advisory opinion of the internal revenue service, the department shall accept and process any IRS Form 8850, or any successor to such form, that is submitted with electronic signatures in the same manner as the department accepts such forms when submitted with physical signatures if such form is submitted to the department by mail, facsimile, or e-mail copy.

(2) For purposes of this subsection (j), “electronic signatures” includes a physical printout of an electronically signed IRS Form 8850 indicating that the signature field is “signed electronically”.