RHODE ISLAND

GENERAL LAWS-1923

CHAPTER 51.-Private employment offices

SECTION 18. Licenses.-[Boards of police commissioners, boards of aldermen and town councils may license suitable persons as keepers of intelligence or employment offices for others than seamen. These bodies may fix license fees, make regulations, fix fees to be charged for services, etc. No agency may operate without a license.]

CHAPTER 76.-Employment of children-School attendance

SECTION 1 (as amended 1923, ch. 2367). Attendance required.-[School attendance is required to 16 years of age unless a child at 15 is lawfully employed.]

SEC. 4. Enforcement.-[Enforcement is in the hands of truant officers, who may visit any establishment where children are employed and require reports of children employed.]

CHAPTER 79.-Vocational rehabilitation of injured workmen

SECTION 1. Scope.-The commissioner of education, with the approval of the State board of education, is hereby authorized and empowered to provide for the vocational rehabilitation of persons disabled in any legitimate occupation and their return to civil employment. If any person, being a resident of this State, by reason of physical defect or infirmity, whether congenital or acquired by accident, injury, or disease, is or may be expected to be totally or partly incapacitated for remunerative employment or service in his occupation, the commissioner of education, with the approval of the State board of education, may, if the person is a suitable subject for rehabilitation, assist in rendering him fit to engage in a remunerative occupation by appointing him as a State scholar at any suitable school or institution either within or without the State, or by providing suitable instruction in school or shop or other suitable place, for a period in either instance not exceeding one year: Provided, That the period of instruction may be extended upon proof of satisfactory accomplishment and the need of extension to insure rehabilitation: And provided further, That the commissioner at any time for reasonable cause may revoke any scholarship or discontinue other provision for instruction.

SEC. 2. Board of education.--The board of education are hereby clothed with the duty and responsibility of supervising the rehabilitation and educa tion of all such beneficiaries, and no beneficiary appointed under the provisions of this act shall be withdrawn from any institution or school except with their consent or the consent of the governor; and said board shall annually report to the general assembly their doings under the provisions of this act, with such recommendations and further information in relation to the several institutions at which these beneficiaries have been placed as may be deemed desirable.

SEC. 3. Funds.-The general assembly shall annually appropriate such sum as it may deem sufficient and advisable for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act; and the State auditor is hereby directed to draw his orders upon the general treasurer for the payment of any sum appropriated for the purposes of this act, or so much thereof as may from time to time be required, upon receipt by him of proper vouchers signed by the commissioner of public schools and approved by the governor.

SEC. 4. Artificial limbs.-The commissioner of public schools may, in his discretion, also, out of the appropriations made under the provisions of this act, provide to beneficiaries under the provisions of this act artificial limbs, wholly or partially free of charge, or at cost, to be repaid by said beneficiaries in installments to be fixed by said commissioner, and all moneys collected from

such installment repayments shall be turned into the State treasury, and such money is hereby reappropriated for the purposes of this act.

SEC. 5. Exceptions.-This act shall not apply to aged or helpless persons requiring permanent custodial care, or to insane, epileptic, or feeble-minded persons, or to other persons who, in the judgment of the commissioner of education, may not be susceptible to rehabilitation.

CHAPTER 85.-Factory, etc., regulations-Employment of children

SECTION 1 (as amended 1923, ch. 2367). Age; certificates.-[Children under 15 may not be employed in any factory or manufacturing or business establishment in the State, unless by limited certificate to a child 14 years of age, permitting employment outside school hours; nor may a child under 16 work between 8 p. m. and 6 a. m. Certificates are required for all children under 16, showing age, schooling equivalent to six grades, and physical ability for employment. Certificate is held by issuing authority until an employer gives notice of intention to employ, when the certificate issues to him, to be returned when employment ceases. Certificates are subject to inspection, and proof of age must be furnished in doubtful cases. Special permits are provided for in the case of children mentally incompetent to pass the literacy test, but physically able to work. Failing or refusing to produce a certificate on demand of an inspector entails a fine, $10 to $50.]

SEC. 2. Application.-[The law applies to employers of 5 or more persons, but does not apply to agricultural pursuits, nor affect the law as to acrobatic, etc., employments.]

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SEC. 3. Inspectors.-The governor shall, during the January session, A. D. 1923, and in the month of January every third year thereafter, appoint, with the advice and consent of the senate, one chief factory inspector, one deputy chief factory inspector, and three assistant factory inspectors, one of whom shall be a woman, whose term of office shall be three years and until their successors shall be so appointed and qualified. Said inspectors shall be empowered to visit and inspect, at all reasonable hours and as often as practicable, the factories, workshops, and other establishments in this State subject to the provisions of this chapter, and shall report to the general assembly of this State at its January session in each year, including in said reports the name of the factories and the number of such hands employed. It shall also be the duty of said inspectors to enforce the provisions of this chapter and prosecute all violations of the same before any court of competent jurisdiction in the State. The name and residence of any child found working without the certificate provided for in section 1 of this chapter shall be reported by the chief inspector to the school committee in the city or town where such child resides. Said inspectors shall devote their whole time and attention to the duties of their respective offices, under the direction of the chief factory inspector, and in his absence or inability to serve under the direction of the deputy chief factory inspector.

The annual salary of the chief factory inspector shall be three thousand dollars; of the deputy chief factory inspector twenty-five hundred dollars; and of each of the three assistant factory inspectors two thousand dollars. SEC. 5. Guards required for hoistways, etc.-It shall be the duty of the owner, agent or lessee of any such factory, manufacturing or mercantile establishment where hoisting shafts or wellholes are used, to cause the same to be properly and substantially inclosed or secured if, in the opinion of the inspectors, it is necessary to protect the life or limbs of those employed in such establishments. The owner, agent or lessee of any factory, manufacturing, or mercantile establishment shall inclose or cause to be inclosed all freight elevator shafts on all sides thereof, and shall provide or cause to be provided an entrance or entrances thereto by means of an automatic or semiautomatic sliding gate or gates, not less than six feet in height, except on the top floor where the gates shall be not less than four feet in height. Said gate or gates shall be so constructed as to close by the action of the elevator on leaving each floor, unless such elevator is equipped with a suitable device to prevent the movement of the car until the elevator shaft, gates or doors are closed, as provided for passenger elevators in section 16 of chapter 129 of the General Laws.

SEC. 6 (as amended 1923, ch. 2367). Dangerous occupations.-[This section forbids the employment of minors under 16 in designated dangerous occu

pations, or any other work or process declared by the State board of health to be injurious or dangerous for children under 16. For a similar list see secs. 3145, 3148, Delaware Code.]

SEC. 7. Accidents.-It shall be the duty of the owners or superintendent to report in writing to the factory inspectors all fatal accidents within forty-eight hours after their occurrence; and all accidents which prevent the injured person or persons from returning to work within two weeks after the injury shall, within one week after the expiration of such two weeks, be reported in writing by the person in charge of such establishment or place to the said inspectors, stating as fully as possible the cause of such accidents.

SEC. 8. Water-closets; suction shuttles, etc.-[This section requires the owner of a building in which is located any factory or manufacturing or mercantile establishment to provide each establishment employing 25 persons or less with a properly constructed water closet, the sexes to have separate accommodations. A ratio of one to every 40 employees or fraction thereof exceeding one-half is fixed.

If inspectors find it necessary, separate dressing rooms must be furnished for women and girls. Establishments employing women and girls must furnish seats and permit their use when standing is not required for the performance of the work.

The use of suction shuttles is prohibited.]

SEC. 9. Defective conditions. If the factory inspectors, or either one of them, find that the heating, lighting, ventilation or sanitary arrangement of any shop or factory is such as to be injurious to the health of the persons employed therein, or that the means of egress in case of fire or other disaster is not sufficient, or in accordance with all the requirements of law, or that the belting, shafting, gearing, elevators, drums and machinery in shops and fac tories are located so as to be dangerous to employees, and not sufficiently guarded, or that the vats, pans or structures filled with molten metal or hot liquid are not surrounded with proper safeguards for preventing accident or injury to those employed at or near them, either or both shall notify the proprietor of such factory or workshop to make the alterations or additions necessary within ninety days; and if such alterations or additions are not made within ninety days from the day of such notice, or within such time as such alterations can be made with proper diligence upon the part of said proprietors, said proprietors or agents shall be deemed guilty of violating the provisions of this chapter, subject, however, to the right of appeal as hereinafter provided.

SEC. 10. Appeal from inspectors' orders.—Any person who is aggrieved by any order of said inspectors may appeal therefrom to the district court of the judicial district in which the building which is the subject of the order is situated, by filing his reasons of appeal within seven days after the date of the order appealed from, and by giving notice thereof to the inspector who made the order within forty-eight hours after filing said reasons of appeal; and said court shall proceed to hear the said appeal at its first session after such notice shall have been given, and shall approve, modify or revoke said order as it may deem right, subject, however, to the right of a jury trial after decision ** * And any such decision of said court from which a jury trial is not claimed shall be final and conclusive.

SEC. 11. Power of inspectors.-The State shall provide a suitable office for the use of said factory inspectors; and said factory inspectors shall have the power to administer oaths or affirmations in cases where persons desire to verify documents connected with the proper enforcement of this chapter.

SEC. 12. Violations.-[Violation, except failing to produce certificate (sec. 1), entails a fine, not to exceed $500.]

SEC. 13. Copy of act to be posted.-A printed copy of this chapter shall be posted by the inspectors in each workroom of every factory, manufacturing or mercantile establishment where persons are employed who are affected by the provisions of this chapter.

SEC. 14. Surety for costs.-The inspectors created by section three of this chapter shall not be required to give surety nor personal recognizance for

costs.

SEC. 15. Enforcement of law as to hours of labor.-The factory inspectors shall, in addition to their duties otherwise provided, enforce the provisions of section twenty-two, chapter two hundred forty-nine and may prosecute all violations of the same before any court of competent jurisdiction in the State.

SEC. 16. Employers to furnish drinking water.-Every corporation, association, firm or person owning, controlling, or superintending any manufacturing or business establishment in this State shall provide fresh drinking water, of good quality, to which their employees shall have access during working hours. No such corporation, association, firm, or person shall allow the use of a common drinking cup or a common towel in such establishment.

SEC. 17. Violations.-[Violation of the preceding section is punishable by a fine, $20 to $50.]

SEC. 32. Messenger service.-No person under the age of twenty-one years shall be employed or permitted or suffered to work as a messenger for a telegraph, telephone, or messenger company in the distribution, transmission, or delivery of goods or messages before five o'clock in the morning or after ten o'clock in the evening of any day.

SEC. 33. Violations.—[Violation of the above section is punishable by a fine, $20 to $50 for a first offense, and for a second offense a fine of $50 to $100 or imprisonment ten days to six months, or both.]

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CHAPTER 87.-Bureau of industrial statistics

SECTION 1. Commissioner.-There shall be a commissioner of industrial statistics who shall perform the duties enumerated in this chapter and such others as are or may be from time to time provided by law. At the January session of the general assembly in the year A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-three, and in every second year thereafter, the governor, with the advice and consent of the senate, shall appoint some person to be commissioner, of industrial statistics to succeed the person then holding such office; and the person so appointed shall hold his office until the first day of February in the second year after his appointment. Any vacancy which may occur in said office when the senate is not in session shall be filled by the governor until the next session thereof, when he shall, with the advice and consent of the senate, appoint some person to fill such vacancy for the remainder of the term. The commissioner of industrial statistics shall be ex officio superintendent of the census of the State ** * and in addition thereto he shall collect, arrange, tabulate, and publish, in a report by him to be made to the general assembly in January, the facts and statistical details in relation to the condition of labor and business in all mechanical, manufacturing, commercial, and other industrial business of the State, and especially in relation to the social, educational, and sanitary condition of the laboring classes, with such suggestions as he may deem to be proper for the improvement of their condition and the bettering of their advantages for intellectual and moral instruction, together with such other information as he may deem to be useful to the general assembly in the proper performance of its legislative duties in reference to the subjects in regard to which he is required to report.

SEC. 2. Reports of employers.-Every employer of labor, and every person engaged in any industrial pursuit, shall give the commissioner of industrial statistics all proper and necessary information to enable him to perform the duties herein required of him, and in default thereof, upon reasonable demand, shall be fined twenty dollars.

SEC. 3. Assistants, etc.-Said commissioner shall employ such assistants and incur such expenses incident to the proper discharge of the duties of his office as may be necessary not exceeding five thousand dollars in amount in any one year; but no such assistant shall be paid more than four dollars per day in addition to the necessary traveling expenses, and the salary provided for said commissioner shall be in addition to the compensation fixed by the general assembly for said commissioner for taking the census.

SEC. 5. Deputy commissioner.-There shall be a deputy commissioner of labor, who shall receive an annual salary of twenty-three hundred dollars, and the sum of twenty-three hundred dollars is hereby annually appropriated for the purpose of paying such salary. In the month of January, A. D. nineteen hundred and twenty-five, and in the month of January of every third year thereafter, the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate shall appoint a deputy commissioner, who shall be a representative of labor, to succeed the deputy commissioner whose term expires. Any vacancy which may occur in said office of deputy commissioner shall be filled by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate, if the senate be in session, and if the Senate should not then be in session shall be filled by the governor until the next session of the general assembly, when with the advice and consent of the senate he shall appoint a proper person to fill such vacancy.

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deputy commissioner shall act as agent to the labor commissioner in the conduct of investigations of labor conditions, ordered by the labor commissioner and shall perform such other duties as said labor commissioner may direct. He shall act as secretary to the State board of labor as provided in the following section. He shall under the direction of the said State board of labor aid and assist any board of mediation and conciliation appointed by said State board of labor under the provisions of section seven of this chapter.

SEC. 6. Board of labor.-There shall be a State board of labor consisting of the labor commissioner, who shall be chairman of the board, and four other members, two of whom shall be representatives of employers of labor in the State and two of whom shall be representatives of labor in the State, to be appointed as hereinafter provided. In the month of January, A. D. nineteen hundred twenty-five, and in the month of January in every third year thereafter the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate shall so appoint two members of said board to succeed the members whose term will next expire, and the persons so appointed shall hold office until the first day of February in the sixth year after their appointment. Any vacancy, which may occur in said board when the senate is not in session shall be filled by appointment by the governor until the next session thereof, when the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate shall appoint some citizen to fill such vacancy for the unexpired term. The board shall meet at least once a month and at such other times as the commissioner of labor may direct. SEC. 7. Monthly conferences; labor disputes.-The commissioner of labor shall report to the board of labor at each of its monthly meetings such matters relating to the interests of labor as may have come to his attention in the discharge of the duties of his office, and it shall be the duty of the board to advise and confer with the commissioner in relation to the administration of the laws of the State relating to labor. The board shall report to the general assembly at its January session and present in such report any recommendations it may deem advisable in regard to the administration of such laws, and suggest any changes or amendments to such laws as it may deem desirable. It shall be the duty of the board to do all in its power to promote the voluntary mediation and conciliation of controversies and disputes between employers and employees, and to avoid resort to strikes, lockouts, boycotts, blacklists, discriminations, and legal proceedings in or arising out of such controversies and disputes and matters of employment. In pursuance of this duty, said board may, whenever it deems advisable, but subject to the approval of the governor, appoint a board of mediation and conciliation for the consideration and settlement of such controversies and disputes. The said board shall prescribe rules of procedure for such mediation and conciliation, and the said mediation and conciliation boards shall have the power to conduct investigations, to hold hearings, and to summon witnesses.

CHAPTER 88.-Free public employment offices

SECTION 1. Offices to be established. There shall be established and maintained, under the care and direction of the commissioner of industrial statistics, in such towns or cities as may be selected after proper investigation by said commissioner, free employment offices for the purpose of bringing together those who seek employment and those who desire to employ.

SEC. 2. Equipment and officers.-The said commissioner is hereby authorized and directed to organize in each city or town so selected, a free public employment office which shall be provided with suitable rooms, furniture, and equipment required for the transaction of the business provided for in this chapter, and shall appoint such clerical assistants as may be necessary for each of said offices, to discharge, under the direction of said commissioner, the duties hereinafter set forth, or which may be required by said commissioner in carrying out the purpose of this chapter.

SEC. 3. Registers.-It shall be the duty of said commissioner to receive and record, in books suitably arranged, all applications from those seeking employment and also from those seeking to employ, and to take such other action as may be deemed best to carry out the purposes of said offices. Such records shall show plainly in brief the qualifications of all applicants, and such other facts as may be deemed necessary by said commissioner, who shall furnish to each office all such record books, forms, blanks, or other stationery and postage as may be required in conducting the office. Each office shall be plainly indicated by a proper sign or signs.