Title 28, Title 28 and Labor Relations

All criminal actions for any violation of chapters 39 — 41 of this title or any rule or regulation of the department shall be prosecuted by the attorney general or by any qualified member of the Rhode Island bar that shall be designated by the director and approved by the attorne…

No person shall be convicted of any offense for any violation of chapters 39 — 41 of this title or any rule or regulation of the department unless the complaint or warrant for that violation has been issued within five (5) years from the time of the commission of the offense.

To the extent that funds are made available by the federal government, under Title III of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. § 501 et seq.), or otherwise for such purpose, the expenses of administering chapters 39 — 41 of this title shall be paid from those funds, provided that t…

The general assembly shall annually appropriate a sum sufficient for the payment of expenses of administering chapters 39 — 41 of this title during each fiscal year, which sum shall be payable out of the temporary disability insurance reserve fund; provided, that those sums shall…

The director shall undertake an educational publicity program designed to safeguard the fund created by this chapter. The director shall solicit the cooperation and assistance of labor, industry, and the public generally, in effecting that program. In the exercise of his or her a…

The general treasurer and the state director of administration shall have the same powers and duties with relation to chapters 39 — 41 of this title as they respectively have to chapters 42 — 44 of this title.

Chapters 39 — 41 of this title shall be construed liberally in aid of their declared purpose, which declared purpose is to lighten the burden which now falls on the unemployed worker and his family.

All the rights, privileges, or immunities conferred by chapters 39 — 41 of this title, or by acts done pursuant to these chapters, shall exist subject to the power of the general assembly to amend or repeal these chapters at any time.

(a) There is created the temporary disability insurance fund, to be administered by the director, without liability on the part of the state beyond the amounts paid into and earned by the fund. This fund shall consist of: (1) All payments made subsequent to June 30, 1947, in acco…

If any provision of chapters 39 — 41 of this title, or its application to any person or circumstances, is held invalid, the remainder of the chapters and the application of that provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected by that invalidity.

(a) There is hereby established a task force on temporary disability insurance fraud and program integrity. The task force shall consist of the following members or their designees: (1) The director of labor and training or designee; (2) The secretary of health and human services…

The temporary disability insurance fund shall be administered and used solely to pay benefits upon vouchers drawn on the fund by the director pursuant to regulations and no other disbursements shall be made from it except as provided in §§ 28-39-33, 28-39-34, and 28-40-6. Those r…

The general treasurer shall be custodian and treasurer of the fund and shall pay all vouchers duly authenticated and drawn upon the fund. He or she shall have custody of all moneys belonging to the fund and not otherwise held or deposited or invested pursuant to chapters 39 — 41 …

(a) There is created the temporary disability insurance reserve fund, to be administered in the manner subsequently prescribed in this chapter, without liability on the part of the state beyond the amounts paid into and earned by the reserve fund. This reserve fund shall consist …

The reserve fund shall be administered and used in any manner that the general assembly shall from time to time prescribe for purposes designed to benefit individuals prevented by injury or sickness from performing their regular or customary work; provided, that any sums that may…

The general treasurer shall be custodian of the reserve fund, and shall pay all vouchers duly drawn upon the reserve fund and properly authenticated. He or she shall have custody of all moneys belonging to the reserve fund and not otherwise held or deposited or invested pursuant …

(a) The taxable wage base under this chapter for each calendar year shall be equal to the greater of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) or the annual earnings needed by an individual to qualify for the maximum weekly benefit amount and the maximum duration under chapters 39 …

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 any receivership, assignment for benefit of creditors, adjudicated insolvency, composition, or similar proceeding, contribution payments then or subs…

If an employer for any reporting period fails to make any report used for the purpose of determining the amount of contributions payable under chapters 39 — 41 of this title at the time and in the manner required by the prescribed rules and regulations, or if those reports when f…

If any employer fails to make any payment of contributions or interest on them at the time and in the manner required by the prescribed rules and regulations, the amount of contributions so due shall be collected by civil action. All civil actions shall be instituted in the name …

In any civil action brought to enforce chapters 39 — 41 of this title, the director may be represented by any qualified attorney whom the director has designated and employed for this purpose or, at the director’s request, by the attorney general.

(a)(1) The amount of any contributions, interest, and penalties imposed upon any employer under this chapter shall: (i) Be a debt due to the state; (ii) Constitute a trust fund for the state until paid to the director; (iii) Be recoverable at law in the same manner as other debts…

The sale or transfer by any employer other than receivers, assignees under a voluntary assignment for the benefit of creditors, trustees in bankruptcy, or public officers acting under judicial process, of the major part in value of the assets of that employer otherwise than in th…

(a) The director shall have, for the collection of the contributions imposed by this chapter, all powers as are prescribed for collection of contributions in this title. The director may require any person subject to the taxes imposed by this chapter to file with him or her a bon…

If the total amount due to the department of labor and training from an employer in contributions and/or interest for any period is less than one dollar ($1.00), this amount shall not be assessed.

An employee who adheres to the faith or teachings of any church, sect, or denomination and in accordance with its creed, tenets, or principles, depends for healing upon prayer or spiritual means in the practice of religion, shall be exempt from chapters 39 — 41 of this title and …

Minors fourteen (14) and fifteen (15) years of age shall be exempt from chapters 39 — 41 of this title.

Disabled persons employed through a “supported employment” program as described in the federal Rehabilitation Act amendments of 1992 (see 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.) and who are ineligible to receive temporary disability benefits because their pay is too low may elect to be exempt f…

Each employer shall withhold in trust contributions from the wages of his or her employees at the time those wages are earned or paid; shall show the deduction on his or her payroll records; and shall furnish to the employer’s employees any evidence of the deduction as the direct…

(a) All contributions withheld by any employer from employees in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, and all contributions withheld by any employer from employees under color of those provisions, shall constitute a trust fund for the state until paid to the director. …

If the director believes that the payment to the state of the trust fund established under § 28-40-3.1 will be jeopardized by delay, neglect, or misappropriation, he or she shall then notify the employer that the trust fund shall be segregated, and be kept separate and apart from…

Any employer and any officer, agent, servant, or employee of any corporate employer responsible for either the withholding or payment of contributions, who appropriates or converts the contributions withheld to his or her own use or to any use other than the payment of the contri…

If the director determines that any individual, or employing unit or its agent, has failed or refused to transmit contributions withheld from the wages of employees in accordance with chapters 39 — 41 of this title, the director shall notify the state controller of this delinquen…

If any employer fails to deduct the contributions of any of the employer’s employees at the time their wages are paid or fails to make a deduction at the time wages are paid for the next succeeding payroll period, the employer alone shall subsequently be liable for those contribu…

If more or less than the correct amount of contributions imposed under §§ 28-40-1 — 28-40-4 is paid with respect to any wage payments, then, under prescribed regulations, proper adjustments with respect to the contributions shall be made, without interest, in computing contributi…

(a) If an employer or employee makes application for refund or credit of any amount paid as contributions or interest under this title, and the director determines that the amount or any portion of it was erroneously collected, the director shall, in his or her discretion, either…

(a) Disabled persons employed through a “supported employment” program as described in the federal Rehabilitation Act amendments of 1992 (see 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq.) and who: (1) Were or are ineligible to receive temporary disability benefits because their pay is too low and (2)…

(a) If the tax administrator determines a person has neglected or refused to pay personal income taxes as defined in chapter 30 of title 44, the tax administrator shall notify the director of labor and training of the delinquency. The director, upon certification of the amount of…

Any employer, employee, or other person aggrieved by any decision of fact or law by the director as to his, her, or its liability to make contributions or to withhold and pay contributions, or as to the amount of contributions due from or to be withheld and paid by him, her, or i…

If any employing unit that is or becomes an employer subject to chapters 39 — 41 of this title within the calendar year 1942, or within any calendar year after that, the employees of that employing unit shall become subject to all the provisions of those chapters from the date up…

Employers who fail to make payment of contributions, as required by chapters 39 — 41 of this title, or by the prescribed rules and regulations, shall be additionally liable to the temporary disability insurance reserve fund for interest on those delinquent payments at the rate of…

Benefits shall be payable from the fund and shall be paid through employment offices, or any other agencies that the director may designate and the federal Social Security Administration may approve, in accordance with prescribed regulations.

Notwithstanding any provision of chapters 39 — 41 of this title to the contrary, if the benefit year of an individual terminates prior to the end of a week throughout which he or she is unemployed due to sickness and eligible and his or her benefit credits for that benefit year h…

(a) For benefit years beginning on or after July 1, 1981, and prior to October 7, 1990, an individual shall be deemed eligible for benefits for any given week of his or her unemployment due to sickness only if he or she has, within the base period immediately preceding the benefi…

(a)(1) An individual shall be disqualified from receiving benefits during any week with respect to which he or she will receive remuneration in the form of benefits under an unemployment compensation law of any state or of the United States. (2) Notwithstanding any provisions of …

(a) An individual who has been convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction of knowingly or fraudulently making a false statement, or knowingly or fraudulently misrepresenting a material fact, with intent to defraud the temporary disability insurance fund of any benefit or wron…