Rhode Island considers bill addressing ‘psychological safety’ in workplace

A bill providing legal remedies for Rhode Island workers who claim they are being bullied in the workplace has been scheduled for a Senate hearing on April 22.

S.B. 959, introduced Thursday, aims to address workplace “psychological safety.” It provides definitions of bullying and guidelines for anti-bullying training and investigations. The bill also includes potential damages, including “the greater of all actual damages” or $5,000 for each violation, lost wages, attorney’s fees, and punitive damages — describing such as “legal relief and remedies for employees harmed psychologically, emotionally, physically, professionally, or economically by exposure to an unsafe, toxic work environment, including any subsequent damages to make employees whole.”

An employer could create an affirmative defense to limit damages for psychological abuse, where the employer took “all steps” outlined in the bill to “acknowledge, monitor, prevent, discourage, and adequately address the issues and complaints surrounding allegations of psychological abuse and exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any violation in this chapter or acted with just cause.”