Title 28, Title 28 and Labor Relations

Any garnishee defendant shall be required to appear and make answer in any action, as required by law, without having paid to him or her in advance garnishee’s fees, but garnishee’s fees shall be included as part of the taxable costs of the action.

Out of any recovery on a judgment in a suit there shall be paid: (1) First, the garnishee’s and witness fees; (2) Second, the wage claims involved; (3) Third, the deputy sheriff’s fees; and (4) Fourth, the court costs.

Whenever a majority of the members of the duly certified collective bargaining unit in any place of employment requests, in writing, from their employer that their union dues be deducted from their salary, the dues shall be deducted and remitted together with a list of the member…

(a) Subject to any provisions of the general laws or the public laws to the contrary, whenever any employer provides for a payroll deduction for any purpose, the employer shall transfer those funds deducted to the appropriate person, agency, partnership, or corporation entitled t…

(a) No employer shall deduct or withhold from the payment of wages owed to an employee for the performance of work or other reason set forth in this chapter, any monies not authorized by federal or state law or by court order, without first getting written or electronic approval …

If any provision of this chapter, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of the chapter and the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected by the invalidity.

Whenever an employee who has worked for an employer for more than one year is separated from work by a “layoff,” the employer shall offer to pay to the employee the same wages earned at the time of the separation upon the employee’s later return to work at the same or similar job…

(a) Whenever an employee separates or is separated from the payroll of an employer, the unpaid wages or compensation of the employee shall become due on the next regular payday and payable at the usual place of payment. (b) Whenever an employee separates or is separated from the …

In the event of the suspension of work as the result of an industrial dispute, the wages and compensation earned and unpaid at the time of the suspension, without abatement or reduction, shall become due and payable at the next regular payday.

(a) Any employer, including the state or a municipal corporation, may at any time after thirty (30) days from the death of an employee pay all wages or personal earnings due to the deceased employee, in order of preference, to: (1) The surviving husband or wife; (2) Children eigh…

In the event of any distribution of an employer’s assets pursuant to an order of any court under the laws of this state, including receivership, assignment for benefit of creditors, adjudicated insolvency, composition, or similar proceeding, the wages or compensation earned and u…

In case of a dispute over wages, the employer shall give written notice to the employee of the amount of wages that he or she concedes to be due and shall pay that amount without condition within the time set by this chapter; provided, that acceptance by the employee of this paym…

Nothing contained in this chapter shall in any way limit or prohibit the payment of wages or compensation at more frequent intervals, or in greater amounts or in full when or before due, but no provision of this chapter can in any way be contravened or set aside by a private agre…

“Assignment,” as used in this chapter, includes every instrument purporting to transfer an interest in or an authority to collect the future earnings of any person.

No assignment of future earnings or wages shall be valid: (1) For a period exceeding one year from the date of the assignment; (2) Unless made to secure a debt contracted prior to or simultaneously with the execution of the assignment; (3) Unless executed in writing in the standa…

The standard form of assignment required by this chapter shall be as follows: Know All Men and Women by These Presents; That I, __________ in county of __________ for a valuable consideration, to me paid by __________ of __________ the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, do …

No assignment of future earnings or wages shall be valid unless a copy of it is delivered to the assignor at the date of the execution of the assignment.

No assignment of future earnings or wages shall be valid, except as between the parties to the assignment, unless the assignment is recorded within five (5) days after it is signed by the assignor in a book to be kept for that purpose in the office of the recorder of deeds, if th…

No assignment of future earnings or wages shall be in any way binding upon the employer of the assignor until a copy of the assignment and account, which shall conform to the requirements stated in this section, has been delivered to the employer. The account shall be in writing …

An assignment of future earnings or wages made in accordance with all of the provisions of this chapter shall bind all wages earned by the assignor within the period named in the assignment.

All assignments of wages made in accordance with the provisions of chapter 25 of title 19 for the purpose of securing any loan made in accordance with the provisions of that chapter, shall be exempt from provisions of this chapter that are inconsistent with the provisions of chap…

(a) None of the sections of this chapter shall be applicable to, control, or prohibit the deduction from wages of an employee by an employer in accordance with the terms of a collective bargaining agreement entered into with the employer by a labor organization that is the author…

The Rhode Island department of labor and training is empowered to assist and cooperate with the administrator of the wage and hour and public contracts division and the director of the bureau of labor standards of the United States Department of Labor, in the administration and t…

The department of labor and training is authorized to enter into agreements with the Wage and Hour and Public Contracts Divisions and/or the Bureau of Labor Standards of the United States Department of Labor for assistance and cooperation, and is authorized, from time to time, to…

The general treasurer shall receive and provide for the proper custody of all funds paid to the state from the federal treasury under the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq., and shall disburse those funds upon orders drawn by the controller upon r…

(a) “Employees’ trust” as used in this chapter means any trust created by an employer for the maintenance and regulation of an apprentice training program, and any trust created as part of a stock bonus plan, pension plan, disability or death benefit plan, or profit sharing plan …

The income arising from any personal property held in any employees’ trust as defined in § 28-17-1 may be permitted to accumulate in accordance with the terms of the trust and the plan to which the trust forms a part for any time that may be necessary to accomplish the purposes f…

The intangible personal property held in any employees’ trust as defined in § 28-17-1 shall be exempt from all sales and use taxes and all other state and local taxation so long as it is held in trust and used for the purposes of the trust and of the plan of which the trust forms…

The interest of any person in any employees’ trust as defined in § 28-17-1 and any pension derivable from that trust shall not be subject to trustee process or liable to attachment on any writ, original, mesne, or judicial, or be taken on execution or any process, legal or equita…

The employment of workers in industry in the state of Rhode Island under conditions resulting in unreasonably low wages and conditions injurious to their health and general welfare is a matter of grave and vital public concern. Any conditions of employment especially fostering su…

No employer shall deliver, or cause to be delivered or received, any articles for, or as a result of, homework processing, unless he or she keeps in any form and forward to the director of labor and training at the intervals that the director may by regulation prescribe on any bl…

No child under sixteen (16) years of age shall be gainfully employed or otherwise in industrial homework. No industrial homework shall be processed except by a person to whom a certificate has been issued, and no person shall redistribute homework on a subcontractual basis. The e…

No person shall do industrial homework unless his or her name is on a homeworker’s certificate issued by the director of labor and training and permitting industrial homework to be done by him or her in the residence and at the address named in the certificate. The certificate sh…

Any cost of obtaining or returning material for industrial homework or the completed product shall be borne by the employer.

No person shall carry on industrial homework except in accordance with this chapter and in accordance with the provisions of any other state law or regulation. Every person desiring to employ homeworkers in this state must procure from the director of labor and training an employ…

No employer shall deliver, or cause to be delivered, any materials or articles to be manufactured by any homeworker unless there has been conspicuously affixed to each article or its container a label or other mark of identification bearing the employer’s name and address, printe…

Any person who violates any provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100) nor more than three hundred dollars ($300) for each offense. Each day any violation occurs or contin…

This chapter does not apply to any corporation organized for a purpose authorized by § 7-6-4 or to any individual or organization engaged in providing work of a philanthropic, educational, or therapeutic nature.

If any provision of this chapter, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of the chapter, and the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected by the invalidity.

The following terms as used in this chapter have the following meanings: (1) “Director” means the director of labor and training. (2) “Employer” means any person who either directly or through an employee, agent, subcontractor, independent contractor, or any other person delivers…

(a) The distribution of industrial homework as defined in § 28-18-2(4) is prohibited except where licenses and certificates have been obtained from the director of labor and training. (b) The director of labor and training may issue a license as provided in this chapter only if t…

The director of labor and training may revoke or suspend the license of any employer or the certificate of any industrial homeworker for a violation by that employer or industrial homeworker of the terms of his or her license or certificate or any provisions of this chapter, or o…

(a) A fee of three hundred dollars ($300) shall be paid to the director of labor and training on behalf of the state of Rhode Island for the original issuance of an employer’s license. (b) For each annual renewal of an employer’s license, the employer shall pay to the director of…

No person in any industry where experience has proven that homework in the industry is not susceptible of effective regulations shall deliver, distribute, supply, or furnish any materials to be processed by another person unless that person has been issued a contractor’s permit b…

No person may perform any process on goods or material owned by another unless the person has been issued a permit by the director of labor and training.

No contract shop may be operated in any home as defined in § 28-18-2(3).