Rhode Island General Laws 28-59-3. Enforceability
(a) A noncompetition agreement shall not be enforceable against the following types of workers:
(1) An employee who is classified as nonexempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. §§ 201-219;
(2) Undergraduate or graduate students who participate in an internship or otherwise enter a short-term employment relationship with an employer, whether paid or unpaid, while enrolled at an educational institution;
(3) Employees age eighteen (18) or younger; or
(4) A low-wage employee.
Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 28-59-3
- Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Employee: means an individual who works for hire, including an individual employed in a supervisory, managerial, or confidential position, but shall not include an independent contractor. See Rhode Island General Laws 28-59-2
- Employer: means any person, business entity, partnership, individual proprietorship, joint venture, firm, company, or other similar legal entity who or that employs one or more employees, and shall include the state and its instrumentalities and political subdivisions, public corporations, and charitable organizations. See Rhode Island General Laws 28-59-2
- Low-wage employee: means an employee whose average annual earnings, as defined in subsection (2), are not more than two hundred fifty percent (250%) of the federal poverty level for individuals as established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services federal poverty guidelines. See Rhode Island General Laws 28-59-2
- Noncompetition agreement: means an agreement between an employer and an employee, or otherwise arising out of an existing or anticipated employment relationship, under which the employee or expected employee agrees that he or she will not engage in certain specified activities competitive with his or her employer after the employment relationship has ended. See Rhode Island General Laws 28-59-2
- Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
- Trade secret: means information as defined in § 6-41-1. See Rhode Island General Laws 28-59-2
(b) This section does not render void or unenforceable the remainder of a contract or agreement containing the unenforceable noncompetition agreement, nor does it preclude the imposition of a noncompetition restriction by a court, whether through preliminary or permanent injunctive relief or otherwise, as a remedy for a breach of another agreement or of a statutory or common law duty.
(c) Nothing in this section shall preclude an employer from entering into an agreement with an employee not to share any information, including after the employee is no longer employed by the employer, regarding the employer or the employment that is a trade secret.
History of Section.
P.L. 2019, ch. 204, § 1; P.L. 2019, ch. 264, § 1.