RHODE ISLAND - Workers’ Rights

Definition of agricultural worker under state law:

•  The state minimum wage law (28 R.I. GEN. LAWS § 12-4.3(9)) defines “[a]ny employee employed in agriculture” as including “all agricultural enterprises that: produce greenhouse crops, fruit and vegetable crops, herbaceous crops, sod crops, viticulture, viniculture, floriculture, feed for livestock, forestry, dairy farming, aquaculture, raising of livestock, furbearing animals, poultry and eggs, bees and honey, mushrooms, and nursery stock.”

Wages and Overtime

Minimum Wage

• There is a state minimum wage law. (28 R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-3)
• Rhode Island’s hourly minimum wage is:
  • $13 effective Jan. 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023;
  • $14 effective Jan. 1, 2024, through Dec. 31, 2024; and
  • $15 effective Jan. 1, 2025.
• Agricultural workers are excluded from the state minimum wage. (28 R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-4.3(9))

Overtime

• There is a state law regarding overtime pay. (28 R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-4.1)
• Agricultural workers are excluded from the state overtime law. (28 R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-4.3(9))

State Enforcement Agency

Rhode Island Department of Labor & Training, Labor Standards Unit

Website: http://www.dlt.ri.gov/ls/ 

Relevant Forms: http://www.dlt.ri.gov/ls/pdfs/LScomplaintform.pdf (also available in Spanish)

Occupational Safety and Health

Workers’ Compensation

• Agricultural workers are covered by the state workers’ compensation law, but with some exceptions. (28 R.I. Gen. Laws § 29-7.2) Workers are excluded from workers’ compensation unless farmers or agricultural employers employ 25 or more farm laborers or agricultural employees for 13 consecutive weeks.

State Enforcement Agency:

Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, Workers’ Compensation

Website: http://www.dlt.ri.gov/wc/FormsWC.htm

Field Sanitation

• There is no state law regarding field sanitation.

Federal Enforcement Agency:

US DOL, Rhode Island OSHA Office

Website: https://www.osha.gov/contactus/bystate/RI/areaoffice

Pesticide Safety

• There is no state law regarding pesticide safety in agriculture.
• Suspected pesticide poisoning is a reportable illness for health care providers, but reporting is not mandatory. 23 R.I. Gen. Laws § 25-26.

State Enforcement Agency:

Rhode Island Department of Agriculture 

Website: http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/agriculture/pesticides-regulatory.php

Right to Join Unions and Collective Bargaining in Agriculture

• There is no provision (or judicial interpretation of a provision) in the state constitution that grants farmworkers the right to join and organize labor unions free from retaliation or to engage in collective bargaining with their employers.
• There is no state statute that grants agricultural workers the right to join and organize labor unions free from retaliation or to engage in collective bargaining with agricultural employers. Farm laborers are explicitly exempted from the state’s labor relations act. (28 R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-3)

State Legal Services Organizations

Rhode Island Legal Services

http://www.rils.org

Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. (based in Maine) 

http://www.ptla.org