TITLE 28

Labor and Labor Relations

CHAPTER 28-9.7

Correctional Officers Arbitration

SECTION 28-9.7-2



   § 28-9.7-2  Statement of policy. –

(a) The protection of the public health, safety and welfare demands that the

full-time correctional officers of the state of Rhode Island not be accorded

the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. This necessary

prohibition does not, however, require the denial to such state employees of

other well recognized rights of labor, such as the right to organize, to be

represented by an organization of their choice, and the right to bargain

collectively concerning wages, rates of pay, and other terms and conditions of

employment.



   (b) It is hereby declared to be the public policy of this

state to accord to the full-time correctional officers of the state all of the

rights of labor other than the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage

or slowdown. To provide for the exercise of these rights, a method of

arbitration of disputes is hereby established.



   (c) The establishment of this method of arbitration shall

not, however, in any way whatever, be deemed to be recognized by the state of

compulsory arbitration as a superior method of settling labor disputes between

employees who possess the right to strike and their employers, but rather shall

be deemed to be a recognition solely of the necessity to provide some

alternative mode of settling disputes where employees must as a matter of

public policy be denied the usual right to strike.



History of Section.

(P.L. 2004, ch. 582, § 1; P.L. 2004, ch. 592, § 1.)