Title 28
Labor and Labor Relations

Chapter 12
Minimum Wages

R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-12-3.2

§ 28-12-3.2. Wages for failure to furnish shift work.

(a) An employer who requests or permits any employee to report for duty at the beginning of a work shift and does not furnish at least three (3) hours work on that shift shall pay the employee not less than three (3) times the regular hourly rate. Provided, however, that shifts scheduled for less than three (3) hours are permissible when entered into voluntarily and agreed upon by both the employer and employee. In the event that an employee reports for duty at the beginning of a work shift and the employer offers no work for him or her to perform, the employer shall pay the employee not less than three (3) times the regular hourly rate or the amount they would have earned for any shifts consisting of less than three (3) hours, as allowed under this section.

(b) This section shall not apply to students enrolled full-time at colleges or universities located in this state who are also an employee of the college or university they attend, except as follows: a college or university that employs students and requests or permits a student employee to report for duty at the beginning of a work shift, the length of which has been mutually agreed to, and the employer does not furnish work for the student employee to perform, will pay the student for the number of hours of the agreed upon shift.

History of Section.
P.L. 1974, ch. 152, § 3; P.L. 1981, ch. 411, § 1; P.L. 2004, ch. 6, § 32; P.L. 2019, ch. 293, § 1; P.L. 2019, ch. 305, § 1.