SECTION 143. Schools and workshops

The commissioner shall, with the approval of the governor, establish, equip and maintain schools for the industrial training of blind persons and workshops for their training and employment. He may pay suitable wages to the employees of such schools and workshops and may devise means for the sale and distribution of products of such schools and workshops.

The commissioner shall establish standards for the assignment and compensation of blind workers and trainees, for the closure of such workshops as he determines are incapable of becoming financially viable, and the transfer of blind workers to private nonprofit, or similar, workshops for the employment of handicapped persons. Any blind worker so transferred may elect, in lieu of accepting such transfer, to retire under the provisions of chapter six hundred and sixty-nine of the acts of nineteen hundred and fifty-seven and shall, regardless of age or years in employment, be regarded as meeting the eligibility requirements of that statute.

No blind worker or trainee shall be compensated according to a standard which results in that person receiving less than the minimum wage required by 29 USC 206.