Fair Employment Practices

Rhode Island Fair Employment Practices fosters the employment of all individuals in this state in accordance with their fullest capacities, regardless of their race or color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age or country of ancestral origin, and safeguards their right to obtain and hold employment without such discrimination.

Employment Service and Employment Related Law Complaint System

If you have a Complaint about

  • Employment Services provided at one of our career centers, or
  • An Employer
    • Any employment-related law, or
    • An employer to which the Employment Service program referred you. 

Contact the manager of the Career Center or the Complaint System Representative listed on the poster(s) below.

If you have any concerns about this complaint process, contact the State Monitor Advocate listed on this poster.

  • Wages
  • Working Hours
  • Workplace Crimes
  • Wrongful Termination
  • Contract Compliance
  • Employer-Provided Transportation or Housing
  • Child Labor
  • Pesticides
  • Health/Safety
  • Discrimination
  • Trafficking
  • Sexual Harassment/Coercion/Assault
  • Other

*Any individual, employer, organization, association, or other entity can file a complaint. A complainant may choose an individual to act as their representative.

This DLT Career Center can also help you to find other employment, training, and supportive services to obtain food, shelter, clothing, and other necessities.

If you make a complaint or give information related to, or assist in, an investigation of a complaint, your identity will be kept confidential to the fullest extent possible under current law and as necessary to determine the complaint fairly. 

Federal laws prohibit employers from retaliating (taking negative actions) against employees who report employment-related complaints. If you experience retaliation from an employer, notify the complaint representative. 

*Language assistance is available free of charge.

Posters

Discrimination Is Illegal

RI General Law 28-5-7 makes it an an unlawful employment practice to discriminate in any aspect of employment including:

  • Recruiting, Hiring and firing
  • Refusing reasonable accommodation
  • Compensation, assignment, or classification of employees
  • Transfer, promotion, layoff, or recall
  • Training and apprenticeship programs
  • Pay, retirement plans, Fringe benefits or disability leave
  • Other terms and conditions of employment

Illegal discriminatory practices include

  • Harrassment on the basis of race or color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age or country of ancestral origin
  • Retaliation against an individual for filing a complaint of discrimination, participating in an investigation or hearing or opposing discriminatory practices
  • Denying employment opportunities to a person because of marriage to, or association with, an individual of a particular race, religion, national origin, or an individual with a disability. Title VII also prohibits discrimination because of participation in schools or places of worship associated with a particular racial, ethnic, or religious group
  • Asking certain pre-employment questions on interviews or applications

Report Discrimination

If you feel that you have been discriminated against, please file a charge with the RI Commission for Human Rights or file a complaint form with the Division of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion.

File a Charge With RICHR File a Complaint with DEDI

Resources