Religious colonies fight Montana’s attempts to impose labor laws on workers

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/religious-colonies-fight-montanas-attempts-to-impose-labor-laws-on-workers/2012/04/25/gIQAtobBhT_story.html

By Associated Press, Published: April 25

HELENA, Mont. — Religious colonies of Hutterites in rural Montana are fighting the state’s attempts to impose a labor law backed by businesses that complain they can’t outbid the low cost of the communal workers.

The Hutterites are Protestants similar to the Amish and Mennonites who live a life centered on their religion, but unlike the others, Hutterites live in German-speaking communes scattered across northern U.S. states and Canada.

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“Their core belief is that they have no property. All the property and labor they have, they contribute to the colony,” Ron Nelson, an attorney for the Big Sky Colony, told the Montana Supreme Court.

The state’s high court on Wednesday heard arguments by the colony and the state on whether Montana’s requirement that employers carry workers’ compensation insurance can be expanded to religious organizations. A state judge has already ruled the 2009 law expanding the workers’ compensation law to force the Hutterites to pay for the insurance violated their right to freely exercise their religion


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