The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- Rhode Island
- Level
- State
- Authority
- R.I. Gen. Laws tit. 28 (Labor and Labor Relations), ch. 20 (Division of Occupational Safety)
- Effective
- standing
- End
- standing (read as 2021-09-30)
- In force
- Standing (a statutory duty; in force throughout the six quarters)
- Quarters
- 2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Standing dutyOther
- Addressees
- employers ('every employer now or subsequently doing business in this state,' § 28-20-7, Ex. DUT-RI-015; 'Employer' includes any person, firm or corporation 'having one or more persons in his, her, or its employ,' § 28-20-1(7))
- Character
- workplace duty
- Collection
- Standing duties: Rhode Island DUT-RI
Operative words
(a) Each employer shall furnish to each of his or her employees a place of employment that is free from recognized safety and health hazards that are causing, or are likely to cause, death or serious physical harm to the employees. (b) Each employer shall comply with occupational safety and health codes promulgated under this chapter.
Penalty
R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-20-18 (Ex. DUT-RI-013): civil penalties to $10,000 per willful or repeated violation, to $1,000 per serious violation, to $1,000 per day of failure to abate; criminal penalties for willful violations causing death; imminent-danger injunctions on petition of the Attorney General under § 28-20-14 (read, not saved)
What it required
Every employer doing business in Rhode Island must furnish a place of employment free from recognized health hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm and must comply with the occupational safety and health codes, which § 28-20-24(c) requires to be 'at least as effective as federal standards, which, in themselves, shall be adopted'; the State's general duty is the federal general duty clause in State words.
Retrieval noteRhode Island has no OSHA-approved State plan for private employers; federal OSHA administers the private sector, and 29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1) (Ex. DUT-AL-009 in Duties/AL) bound every private Rhode Island employer directly throughout the six quarters. § 28-20-1(9) defines 'Standard' as 'a federal standard adopted by the United States Secretary of Labor'; § 28-20-33 (read, not saved) preserves every other State law, regulation or order 'governing the safety or health of employees in any place of employment.' Rhode Island's COVID-19 workplace rules were EO 20-24 (masks at work; RI-015) and 216-RICR-50-15-7 (RI-069 to RI-071); RIDOH's health-care-worker rule 216-RICR-20-15-8 (RI-072) followed on August 17, 2021.