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October 15, 2025
Montana enacted a law – effective October 1, 2025 – prohibiting employers from terminating an employee who is a volunteer emergency service provider and is absent from or late to work due to an emergency. See 2025 Mt. HB 128.
Employee Rights and Obligations
Once an employee has completed any probationary period, the employer may not terminate the employee’s employment because the employee provides volunteer emergency services or has joined a volunteer emergency unit.
A “volunteer emergency services provider” means a volunteer firefighter, a volunteer who is an enrolled member of a volunteer fire department, or a volunteer emergency medical technician and who is not paid full time by the entity for which the services are performed.
To be eligible for the law’s protections, employees must provide written notice to their employer of their status as a volunteer emergency services provider. An employee who serves as a volunteer emergency service provider before October 1, 2025, must provide such notice by October 31, 2025. Employees who join a volunteer emergency unit after October 1, 2025, must provide notice within 30 days of joining the unit. New employees must provide notice of their status as a volunteer emergency service provider within 30 days of hire.
Employees must notify an employer as soon as possible of the reason for the employee’s absence or tardiness.
Employees who believe that their employment was terminated in violation of this new law may bring a civil action for wrongful termination within one year of the date of the termination of their employment.
Employer Rights and Obligations
If an employee’s absence or tardiness would imperil public safety or prevent the employer from performing an essential function, the employer may require the employee to request authorization prior to responding to an emergency. And, once the employee is at work, the employer has discretion to determine whether the employee may leave work to respond to an emergency.
An employer may establish that any volunteer emergency response time is unpaid.
An employer may request a written statement from the volunteer organization that confirms the employee’s participation in an emergency, including the date, time, and duration of the emergency.
Montana Employers: Update your attendance and leave of absence policies and procedures to address circumstances when an employee is late for, or fails to report to, work because the employee is volunteering during an emergency.
The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, Montana, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
