What does a probationary period do for a new tech hire?

Start with the label.

"Probationary period employee" is a phrase your own paperwork applies to an ordinary new hire.

Outside Montana, no statute we researched attaches good-cause protection to finishing probation — but your own handbook wording or a union contract can, so have an attorney read the language before you rely on the label.

Our research also found no federal rule setting what an employer's probationary period must mean for an ordinary hire, which is why our offer letter template is where trial terms should get written down.

Montana shows what the label would have to do to matter legally.

Montana is the exception to at-will employment: under its Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act, once an employee has completed the employer's probationary period, a discharge that is not for good cause is wrongful.

During the probationary period itself, the same act describes employment that may be terminated "at the will of either the employer or the employee on notice to the other for any reason or for no reason."

One statute, two regimes — and note what it does not set: our research did not confirm a maximum or default probation length in Montana.

Either way — statute, handbook, or contract — the practical work is definition: how long the window runs, what the tech is measured on, and what happens at the end.

Put that in writing before day one, and the probation does its job as policy instead of pretending to be law.

If your shop is union-signatory, the first document to read is the collective bargaining agreement — the contract covering your represented techs' employment terms — so check what it already says before you write your own terms.

And the pension side of a union contract carries obligations that outlast any single hire: a union-signatory contractor that withdraws from a multiemployer pension plan, completely or partially, can owe the plan "withdrawal liability" under ERISA (29 U.S.C.

1381).

Building-and-construction-industry plans have their own special withdrawal rules (29 U.S.C.

1383(b)) that our research has not covered, so get advice before any decision about leaving a plan.

Registered apprenticeship is where federal law does cap the term: in a registered program, the probationary period cannot exceed 25 percent of the program's length or one year, whichever is shorter (29 CFR 29.5(b)(8)), and it counts toward completion.

If your new hire is entering a registered apprenticeship, that cap comes from the federal rule and the program's standards — not your handbook.

Up to a hard federal ceiling — and it covers health coverage specifically.

Once you offer a group health plan, the plan may not apply a waiting period that exceeds 90 days — federal regulation 29 CFR 2590.715-2708.

In everyday terms, the waiting period is the span a plan makes a new hire wait before coverage starts, and 90 days is the maximum, not a target: a shorter wait is yours to set.

Keep the two clocks separate on paper.

Your probationary period is a management decision; the waiting period belongs to the plan documents.

They are not the same clock, and writing one into the other invites questions you don't want — before you tie coverage to the end of probation, have your broker or benefits attorney confirm how your plan documents treat eligibility and the 90-day cap.

Whether the federal mandate reaches you is a headcount question, not a probation question.

The ACA's employer shared responsibility provision reaches applicable large employers: those employing an average of at least 50 full-time employees, including full-time equivalents, during the preceding calendar year, with commonly owned businesses counted together.

Probation appears nowhere in that test, and the look-back is a calendar year — this year's crew size sets next year's status.

State and local coverage rules are their own layer; this page covers the federal rules only.

The wait matters to the tech because coverage costs real money.

Per KFF's 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey, average annual premiums ran $9,325 for single coverage and $26,993 for family coverage, with workers contributing $6,850 on average toward family coverage out of their own pay.

Firms with 10 to 199 workers averaged $9,211 for single coverage against $9,361 at larger firms, and $26,054 for family coverage against $27,280.

Those are all-industry averages, not trade figures; the full package decision — what to offer and what it costs — is the job of our guide to benefits for HVAC employees.

Treat the review as the decision the probation exists to force, and hold it before the window lapses.

There are three outcomes: confirm the tech, in writing; extend the window once, with specific goals and a new date; or end the employment.

The fourth outcome — a probation that quietly lapses into permanent "new hire" status — is the worst of them: the tech never hears how the work is landing, and the file never says what happened.

Decide on what you can show.

For a service tech, that's call quality, comebacks, paperwork, how the truck and tools are kept, and how customers are handled — plus the licence and certification progress you promised in the ad.

If your decision leans on the skills test you gave during hiring, mind the rule that governs hiring tests: under the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (29 CFR part 1607), a hiring test with adverse impact on a race, sex or ethnic group is treated as discriminatory unless it has been validated.

Our guide to skills tests for HVAC and plumbing candidates covers the rest of that ground.

If you're in Montana, the file carries real weight: once a tech has completed the probationary period, a discharge that is not for good cause is wrongful under the Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act.

The review record — what you measured, what you told the tech, what you agreed on — is how an ending gets explained in good-cause terms.

Keep the same discipline in every state; the paper costs an hour now and answers harder questions later.

Whoever passes, the next phase decides whether the hire sticks — and that phase started at day one: our guide to onboarding new technicians covers the first-90-days work this review rests on, and the complete guide to hiring HVAC and plumbing techs covers the process from the first ad to the first day.

This page is employer career and business information, not legal advice. Employment rules come from federal statutes and regulations, state law — Montana's among them — and your own contracts; confirm how they apply to your shop with an employment attorney before you rely on any of it.