(a)  The director of health shall promulgate such rules and regulations including the complaint forms, as are necessary to carry out the mandates of this chapter within one hundred eighty (180) days of passage [June 29, 2004].

Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 23-20.10-9

  • Business: means a sole proprietorship, partnership, joint venture, corporation, or other business entity formed for profit-making purposes, including retail establishments where goods or services are sold as well as professional corporations and other entities where legal, medical, dental, engineering, architectural, or other professional services are delivered. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-20.10-2
  • Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
  • Employee: means a person who is employed by an employer in consideration for direct or indirect monetary wages or profit and a person who volunteers his or her services for a nonprofit entity. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-20.10-2
  • Employer: means a person, business, partnership, association, corporation, including a municipal corporation, trust, or nonprofit entity that employs the services of one or more individual persons. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-20.10-2
  • Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
  • Place of employment: means an area under the control of a public or private employer that employees normally frequent during the course of employment, including, but not limited to, work areas, employees lounges, restrooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, classrooms, employee cafeterias, and hallways. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-20.10-2
  • Public place: means an enclosed area to which the public is invited or in which the public is permitted, including, but not limited to, banks, bars, educational facilities, healthcare facilities, laundromats, public transportation facilities, reception areas, restaurants, retail food production and marketing establishments, retail service establishments, retail stores, shopping malls, sports arenas, the state house, theaters, and waiting rooms. See Rhode Island General Laws 23-20.10-2
  • town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9

(b)  Notice of the provisions of this chapter shall be given to all applicants for a business license in the state of Rhode Island, to all law enforcement agencies, and to any business required to be registered with the secretary of state’s office.

(c)  Any citizen who desires to register a complaint under this chapter may initiate such a complaint with the department of health.

(d)  The department of health, having received a written and signed letter of complaint citing a violation of this chapter, shall enforce this entire chapter against violations by either of the following actions:

(1)  Serving written notice to comply to an employer, with a copy of the notice to the complaining individual, requiring the employer to correct immediately any violation or section of this chapter.

(2)  Upon receiving a second complaint at the department of health for the same or continued violation by the same employer, the complaint shall be resolved by notifying the city or town solicitor, having jurisdiction over the licensed holder, to initiate, without delay, an action for injunction to enforce the provisions of this chapter, to cause the correction of such violation or section, and for assessment and recovery of a civil penalty for such violation.

(e)  The department of health, local fire department, or their designees shall, while an establishment is undergoing otherwise mandated inspections, inspect for compliance with this chapter.

(f)  An owner, manager, operator, or employee of an establishment regulated by this chapter shall inform persons violating this chapter of the appropriate provisions thereof.

(g)  In addition to the remedies provided by the provisions of this section, the department of health, aggrieved by the failure of the owner, operator, manager or other person in control of a public place or place of employment to comply with the provisions of this chapter, may apply for injunctive relief to enforce those provisions in any court of competent jurisdiction.

History of Section.
P.L. 2004, ch. 198, § 2; P.L. 2004, ch. 209, § 2; P.L. 2008, ch. 475, § 62.