Wage and Hour/Wage Payment Act
ERD
ERD Main Category
Bureau Functions
Bureau Functions
Please click on a link below to view the Bureau functions.Human Rights
Labor Standards
Safety & Health
Management Services
Workers' Comp Claims Assistance
Workers' Comp Regulation
- Receives and investigates complaints of discrimination
- Provides technical assistance concerning discrimination law
- Attempts resolution of each case
- Conducts impartial investigations and issues determinations on merits of the case
- Attempts conciliation of complaints when preponderance of the evidence supports that discrimination has occurred
- If conciliation is not possible the complaint is referred to the Hearings Bureau of the Department of Labor and Industry. The Hearings Bureau conducts a formal hearing and issues a decision on the complaint.
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Learn More About Human Rights
Labor Standards
Wage & Hour:
- Processes wage claims on issues such as non-payment of wages, improper withholdings, minimum wage and/or overtime.
- Attempts resolution of each case
Provides technical assistance concerning the wage and hour law and child labor law.
Prevailing Wage:
- Processes prevailing wage complaints and/or claims
- Provides technical assistance concerning the prevailing wage act
- Attempts resolution of each case
Collective Bargaining:
Administers the Collective Bargaining Act for Public Employees. This Act provides for and protects the rights of employees in self-organization and provides for bargaining duties and rights on the part of the employee and employer and a procedure for guaranteeing that provisions are met by the employee and employer in this process. The Collective Bargaining Unit directly provides the following services to the public sector:
Unit Determination Unit Clarification Decertification Employer Petition Unfair Labor Petition Interest Mediation Grievance Mediation Process Mediation Non-Union Greivance Mediation Fact Finding Arbitration Wage and Classification
AppealsReligious Exemption Dissemination
of InformationBoard of Personnel
AppealsTraining of
Fact Finders/ArbitratorsTransportation and Fish,
Wildlife & Parks Greivances
Employment Law Mediation:
- Mediates disputes in questions of employment status.
- Provides mediation assistance to resolve issues subject to jurisdiction of the Department of Labor & Industry arising out of the employee/ employer relationships.
Safety & Health
The mission of the Safety and Health Bureau is to raise the level of awareness of Montana employers and employees about workplace safety and health through inspection, consultation, technical assistance and training.
What We Do:
- Public sector workplace compliance with safety and health standards
- Private sector OSHA consultations - help with OSHA compliance
- Workplace technical assistance on safety and health issues
- Industrial hygiene
- Workplace safety and health training
- Mine training
- Inspections of coal mines
- Inspections of sand and gravel operations
- Information on the Safety Culture Act
Management Services
- Implementing Federal and State mandated programs requiring interpretation, requirement definition, systems analysis and design.
- Design and implementation of system enhancements to achieve user productivity gains, customer service gains or both.
- Maintaining the integrity and availability of all the Division's computerized databases.
- Assuring the timely processing of all daily transactions in nightly batch updates.
- Upgrading, testing and implementing system software.
- Automation planning and support for Workers' Compensation Assistance and Regulation, Human Rights, Labor Standards and Safety Bureaus.
- Management analysis of business processes as they relate to information systems.
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Workers' Comp Claims Assistance
- Mediate Workers' Compensation disputes
- Manage the Electronic Data Interchange of Workers' Compensation Data
- Produce an Annual Report of Workers' Compensation statistics
- Assist Workers' Compensation claimants and adjusters with questions about Montana Workers' Compensation
- Maintain the Workers' Compensation database
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Workers' Comp Regulation
- Uninsured Employers' Fund
- Medical regulations
- Insurer compliance
- Independent Contractors
- Construction Contractors
- Subsequent Injury Fund
- Silicosis benefits
- Professional Employers' Organization
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Learn More About Workers' Comp Regulation
Site Map
Contact Us
- Phone the Employment Relations Division at (406) 444-6543
- E-mail comments to the Employment Relations Division - for general questions and comments
Contact Information
Employment Relations Division
Montana Department of Labor and Industry
1805 Prospect Avenue
P.O. Box 8011
Helena, MT 59624-8011
Search Instructions
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Example: harassment - will return decisions which contains the word harassment.
Example: sexual harassment - will return only the documents which contain these words in sequence.
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Measurable Objectives for the 2013 Biennium
HUMAN RIGHTS BUREAU GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
- Goal #1: Conduct timely impartial investigations of charges of illegal discrimination under state and federal law.
- Complete case investigations within 120 days for housing charges and 180 days for all other charges in accordance with state statutory time lines.
- Goal #2: Insure appropriate filing within statutory time lines and jurisdiction of applicable state and federal discrimination statutes.
- Trained staff will screen complaint inquiries and, when appropriate, prepare written complaints within two weeks of all intake interviews.
- Goal # 3: Foster early resolution of charges.
- Provide mediation during the 180 day investigation period, when requested by parties to a case.
- Successfully conciliate 55% of cases certified for hearing.
- Goal # 4: Provide technical assistance and educational outreach to businesses, advocacy groups and interested citizens.
- Participate in 15 Assistance to Business Clinics annually.
- Participate in a minimum of 10 other workshops and conferences on disability issues, race relations, discrimination issues in the workplace, education and public accommodations.
- Respond to business rights inquiries from the public within two business days.
- Goal #1: Issue initial determinations on Wage and Hour complaints in a timely and efficient manner.
- Maintain at least a 75% completion and strive for a 76% completion within 55 days of receipt.
- Goal #2: Conduct timely dispute resolution and settlement of Wage and Hour complaints.
- Maintain the 4% of cases forwarded to formal hearings processes.
- Resolve at least 70% of the contested cases through mediation prior to hearing.
- Goal #3: Foster alternative dispute resolution methodologies.
- Actively participate in Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) contract mediation and grievance mediation as requested.
- Goal #1: Assist employers in complying with workplace safety and health standards.
- Conduct compliance inspections of 220 public employers.
- Conduct quarterly inspections on Montana’s six coal mines.
- Conduct annual sand and gravel inspection
- Provide technical assistance to private employers on workplace safety and health through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration grant.
- Goal #2: Aid in professional development for Montana employers and safety professionals.
- Provide 30 basic and advanced training courses in workplace safety and health through the Montana Occupational Safety and Health Institute.
- Goal #3: Provide mine training courses for Montana employers.
- Train 1,000 – 1,500 miners and mining contractors in new miner training/refresher training through the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) Small Miners training grant.
- Goal #4: Create a safety culture via Statewide Safety Initiative:
- Promote safety and health management systems
- Transform societal attitude in Montana
- Execute social marketing campaign
- Reduce Montanas injury and illness rate to national average (4.4 injuries/100 FTE)
- Develop, implement disability management program to reduce time away from work to national average (88 days)
- Contain medical injury compensations costs
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS ASSISTANCE BUREAU
- Goal #1: Provide timely monitoring and regulatory services for the workers’ compensation industry and claimants.
- Process 100% of orders within 14 days of receipt. This typically requires issuance of determinations on 1,700 orders annually.
- Goal #2: Provide timely, impartial, and equitable dispute resolution of benefit issues between claimants and insurers.
- Maintain at least a 70% to 80% resolution rate for all workers compensation mediation petitions filed. This typically requires conducting mediation conferences and issuing recommendations on 1,300 disputes annually.
- Complete the mediation process on 100% of cases within 80 days of receipt of a petition for mediation. The timeframes may be extended by request and agreement of the parties.
- Goal #3: Enhance the electronic collection, quality, production, and sharing of workers’ compensation information and data.
- Complete the Annual Report by July of each year.
- Prepare at least one special study to be made available to the workers’ compensation community each fiscal year.
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION REGULATION BUREAU
- Goal #1: Develop comprehensive internet based information and technical assistance for the medical community, insurers, adjusters, employers, workers and the general public.
- Develop comprehensive website for Montana Utilization and Treatment Guideline information.
- Goal #2: Respond to applications and renewal requests in a timely manner.
- Conduct timely compliance investigations of renewing applicants.
- Streamline the Independent Contractor process to allow documents filed with a prior application to be verified and used in meeting the requirements for the current application.
- Goal #3: Provide technical assistance, public service announcements and educational outreach to the public about Title 39, Chapters 8, 9, 71, 72, and 73, MCA.
- When requested, the staff correctly answers public inquiries. Staff who are sent to public presentations are knowledgeable of these chapters of the MT law.
- Participate in a minimum of 10 workshops and conferences annually to provide information about the programs the Bureau administers.
