§ 17-23-6 - Improper influence by employers. - Rhode Island Statutes

SECTION 17-23-6

   § 17-23-6  Improper influence by employers.– (a) Every person being an employer who, within ninety (90) days of a generalelection, pays any of his or her employees the salary or wages due them in "payenvelopes" upon which there is written or printed, or in which there isinserted: (1) a notice or information, to the effect that if any particularticket or candidate is elected or defeated, work in the employer's place orestablishment will cease, in whole or in part, or the employer's establishmentwill be closed, or the wages of the employer's employees will be reduced, or(2) any political motto, device, or argument containing threats, expressed orimplied, intended or calculated to influence the political actions or opinionsof the employees, or who puts up or otherwise exhibits, in the employer'sestablishment or place where the employer's employees are engaged in labor, anyhandbill or placard containing any such notice or information or threat, shallbe guilty of a felony.

   (b) Any person, after conviction of this offense, shallforfeit that person's right to vote in any election or upon any propositionbefore the people, or to hold any public office, except that a corporationshall forfeit its charter; and no evidence given by any witness testifying inthe trial of any charge of violation of this section shall be used against theperson giving the evidence.