Montana Code Annotated
Part 1. Treatment of the Seriously Mentally Ill
53-21-167. Patient labor

53-21-167. Patient labor. The following rules govern patient labor:
(1) A patient may not be required to perform labor that involves the operation and maintenance of a facility or for which the facility is under contract with an outside organization. Privileges or release from the facility may not be conditioned upon the performance of labor covered by this provision. Patients may voluntarily engage in the labor if the labor is compensated in accordance with the minimum wage laws of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. 206, as amended.
(2) (a) Patients may be required to perform therapeutic tasks that do not involve the operation and maintenance of the facility if the specific task or any change in assignment is:
(i) an integrated part of the patient's treatment plan and approved as a therapeutic activity by a professional person responsible for supervising the patient's treatment; and
(ii) supervised by a staff member to oversee the therapeutic aspects of the activity.
(b) Patients may voluntarily engage in therapeutic labor for which the facility would otherwise have to pay an employee if the specific labor or any change in labor assignment is:
(i) an integrated part of the patient's treatment plan and approved as a therapeutic activity by a professional person responsible for supervising the patient's treatment;
(ii) supervised by a staff member to oversee the therapeutic aspects of the activity; and
(iii) compensated in accordance with the minimum wage laws of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, 29 U.S.C. 206, as amended.
(3) If any patient performs therapeutic labor that involves the operation and maintenance of a facility but due to physical or mental disability is unable to perform the labor as efficiently as a person not so physically or mentally disabled, then the patient may be compensated at a rate that bears the same approximate relation to the statutory minimum wage as the patient's ability to perform that particular job bears to the ability of a person not so afflicted.
(4) Patients may be required to perform tasks of a personal housekeeping nature, such as the making of one's own bed.
(5) Deductions or payments for care and other charges may not deprive a patient of a reasonable amount of the compensation received pursuant to this section for personal and incidental purchases and expenses.
History: En. 38-1318 by Sec. 18, Ch. 466, L. 1975; R.C.M. 1947, 38-1318; amd. Sec. 1923, Ch. 56, L. 2009.

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