Title 2, Title 2

(1) Except as otherwise provided by law or collective bargaining agreement, the department shall: (a) exercise leadership in the development of effective personnel administration within the several agencies in the state and make available the facilities of the department to this …

Parts 1 through 3 and 10 do not apply to the following officers and employees in state government: (1) elected officials; (2) county assessors and their chief deputies; (3) employees of the office of consumer counsel; (4) judges and employees of the judicial branch; (5) members o…

(1) Subject to the limitations in subsections (2) and (3), members of a personal staff are exempt from parts 1 through 3 and 10. (2) The personal staff who are exempted by subsection (1) may not exceed 10 unless otherwise approved by the department according to criteria developed…

(1) Parts 1 through 3 do not limit the authority of the legislature relative to appropriations for salary and wages. The budget director shall adjust determinations in accordance with legislative appropriations. (2) Unexpended agency appropriation balances in the first year of th…

(1) Job sharing may be used, to the extent practicable, by each agency as a means of promoting increased productivity and employment opportunities. Job sharing may be actively pursued to fill vacated or new positions but may not be actively pursued to replace current full-time em…

As used in this part, the following definitions apply: (1) "Agency head" means a director, commissioner, or constitutional officer in charge of an executive, legislative, or judicial branch agency or an agency of the Montana university system. The term includes the president or o…

The department shall develop a statewide employee incentive award program to appropriately recognize and monetarily reward individual state employees and groups or teams of employees for documented innovations that contribute to the efficiency, economy, or other improvement of st…

The department shall: (1) adopt rules to implement this part; (2) develop model guidelines and promotional materials to assist agencies in implementing this part; and (3) prepare and submit to the state administration and veterans' affairs interim committee by September 15 in the…

(1) Except as provided in subsection (3), an employee, a group or team of employees, or a nonemployee is eligible for an incentive award for innovations that: (a) significantly contribute to achievements or outcomes eliminating or reducing an agency's expenditures; or (b) improve…

(1) An agency head may grant an incentive award to an employee, a group or team of employees, or a nonemployee who has made a significant contribution to achievements or outcomes in the agency, as enumerated in 2-18-1105. An employee or a member of a group or team of employees ne…

An agency head, as defined in 2-18-1101, may, with the approval of the approving authority, as defined in 17-7-102, increase the salary for one or more positions in the agency by the amount of the salary for a position that was permanently eliminated by the agency within the last…

(1) A state agency that operates within an Indian reservation shall give a preference in hiring for employment with the state agency to an Indian resident of the reservation who has substantially equal qualifications for the position. (2) The commissioner of labor and industry sh…

(1) With the exception of 2-18-603, the requirements of parts 6 and 7 of this chapter do not apply to a temporary employee of the university system. (2) As used in this section, "temporary employee" means an employee of the university system who is hired into a position that is n…

(1) An agency may authorize telework for specified employees when it is in the state's best interest as determined and documented by the agency. (2) The department shall adopt policies to encourage agencies to authorize telework and to provide for the uniform implementation of th…

This part may be cited as the "State Employee Protection Act".

As used in this part, the following definitions apply: (1) "Agency" has the meaning provided in 2-18-101 but does not include the Montana university system. (2) (a) "Employee" means a person employed by the state who has achieved permanent status, as defined in 2-18-101, or offic…

(1) An employee whose position is eliminated as a result of privatization, reorganization of an agency, closure of or a reduction in force at an agency, or other actions by the legislature is entitled to: (a) access to any job retraining and career development programs provided b…

An employee whose position is eliminated as a result of privatization, reorganization of an agency, closure of or a reduction in force at an agency, or other actions by the legislature and who is subsequently transferred to a different position in a state agency is entitled to: (…

(1) During the period of unemployment as a result of privatization, reorganization of an agency, closure of or a reduction in force at an agency, or other actions by the legislature, the employee is entitled to remain covered by the state's group health insurance plan and to the …

(1) Except as provided in subsection (2), an employee and the employee's collective bargaining unit, if any, must be notified as soon as possible prior to privatization, reorganization of any agency, or closure of or a reduction in force at an agency. When 25 or more employees ar…

This part may be cited as the "Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association Act".

The legislature finds that escalating health care expenses, particularly the increasing cost of medical treatment and health insurance, constitute a substantial financial burden during and after an employee's working career. The purpose of this part is to provide a means by which…

As used in this part, unless the context requires otherwise, the following definitions apply: (1) "Common association" means an association of employees established pursuant to 2-18-1310 for the purposes of employer and employee participation in the plan. (2) "Contracting employe…

(1) The department shall establish, through contracted services, a plan under a tax-exempt entity that qualifies as a voluntary employees' beneficiary association trust pursuant to section 501(c)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C. 501(c)(9). The plan must provide particip…

The department shall adopt rules to implement the provisions of this part. The rules must be designed to allow the plan to conform to federal law.

(1) The department shall provide for the administration of the plan in the manner required to satisfy applicable tax qualification requirements of the Internal Revenue Code and other applicable federal law. If a statutory provision of this part conflicts with a qualification requ…

(1) At the request of at least 25% of its employees, an employer may facilitate an election by all the employer's employees or by a specified group of the employer's employees to determine whether those employees will form an association for the purpose of participating in the pl…

(1) When the member's employment is terminated, the member's unused sick leave balance may be converted to a tax-free employer contribution to the participant account pursuant to this section. (2) The amount of the employer contribution to a participant's account for hours conver…

Employer contributions into an account, the accumulation of interest or other earnings in an account, and payments from an account for qualified health care expenses are tax-exempt, as provided under applicable federal laws and regulations to the extent that the plan is qualified…

(1) Upon proof of a participant's death, if the deceased participant's account retains funds, the participant's surviving spouse or dependent is entitled to use the account for qualified health care expenses incurred by the participant until the participant's death or incurred by…

(1) The department shall implement and maintain a broadband classification plan for all state positions in state service except those exempt in 2-18-103 and 2-18-104. (2) The legislative council shall in a like manner implement and maintain a broadband classification plan for emp…

In providing for the broadband classification plan, the department shall group all positions in state service into defined occupations based on similarity of work performed, responsibilities assumed, difficulty of work, required knowledge, and required skills.

(1) The department shall review the job evaluation factor of positions on a regular basis and may adjust the occupations for the positions to reflect significant changes in duties and responsibilities. If adjustments are to be made to benchmarks or criteria used for classifying p…

(1) The department shall determine the occupations for positions of employees in each agency. At any time, upon request of an agency, the department may amend the list of occupations for the requesting agency. (2) Based on documentation to be submitted by each agency, the budget …

To facilitate state budgeting and as directed by the budget director, each agency shall maintain a list of current authorized positions, the number of positions in each occupation, and the salaries or wages being paid, appropriated, or proposed for each position.

The department of administration shall, in its continuous efforts to enhance the current classification plan and pay schedules, work toward the goal of establishing a standard of equal pay for comparable worth. This standard for the classification plan shall be reached by: (1) el…

The department of administration shall periodically evaluate the extent to which Montana's classification plan, pay schedules, and statutes adhere to or fall short of the standard of equal pay for comparable worth. The department may make recommendations to the legislature regard…

(1) It is the intent of the legislature that compensation plans for state employees, excluding those employees excepted under 2-18-103 or 2-18-104, be based, in part, on an analysis of the labor markets as provided by the department in a biennial salary survey. The salary survey …

The department shall maintain a schedule of all salaries paid to personnel of civil executive state offices and shall only approve payroll claims agreeing with that schedule. All changes in personnel or salary status shall be authorized as provided by law, and the department shal…

(1) On the first day of the first complete pay period in fiscal year 2026, each employee is entitled to the amount of the employee's base salary as it was on June 30, 2025. (2) To the extent that the plan applies to employees within a collective bargaining unit, the implementatio…

(1) (a) In addition to the compensation provided for in 2-18-303, each employee who has completed 5 years of uninterrupted state service must receive 1.5% of the employee's base salary multiplied by the number of completed, contiguous 5-year periods of uninterrupted state service…

When the monthly or annual salary rate payable to an officer or employee of the state has been set by law or otherwise, notwithstanding any other provision of law, the weekly or hourly rate of pay shall be determined by dividing the annual salary by 52 weeks or 2,080 hours.

The department of administration shall install and operate a uniform state central payroll system for all state agencies, including units of the Montana university system. The department may provide for the orderly inclusion of state agencies into the system and may make exceptio…

(1) A fund in the custodial fund type of the state treasury is created, to be known as the state payroll custodial fund. The fund may be utilized for the payment of compensation to officers and employees of the state and all amounts withheld from compensation, pursuant to law. (2…

The department of administration may provide for a system of charges for services rendered by the state central payroll system to any department or agency of the state. Funds collected under this section must be deposited to the credit of an internal services fund account and exp…

(1) The department of administration shall establish and maintain a payroll roster of all persons employed by every state agency and may establish and maintain a roster of all established positions. The payroll roster must include exempt employees and may include emergency appoin…