§ 5-20-17. Qualifications of journeyperson - Application fee. (a) No application for a journeyperson's license shall be filed at the department of labor and training nor shall any applicant be permitted to take the examination for a license as a journeyperson plumber, unless:

(1) The application is accompanied by a nonrefundable application fee of seventy-five dollars ($75.00); and

(2) The applicant shall have possessed, for at least four (4) years prior to the filing of the application, a certificate of registration in full force and effect from the department of labor and training specifying that person as a registered apprentice plumber and the application of that applicant is accompanied with an affidavit or affidavits of his or her employer or former employers or other reasonably satisfactory evidence showing that the applicant has been actually engaged in plumbing work as an apprentice plumber in the state of Rhode Island for eight thousand (8,000) hours of on-the-job training during a five-year (5) period, which shall include the successful completion of five hundred seventy-six (576) hours of related instruction at a training program recognized by the department of labor and training; provided, however, the apprentice may receive credit for one hundred forty-four (144) hours of classroom training applied against the five hundred seventy-six (576) hours required pursuant to this section, gained in a vocational school authorized by the council on elementary and secondary education; and approved by the Rhode Island department of labor and training state apprenticeship council.

(3) The application is accompanied with an affidavit or other reasonably satisfactory evidence showing that the applicant has been a registered student in a recognized college, university, or trade school and has pursued a course of plumbing or sanitary engineering for at least two (2) academic years; or

(4) The applicant is the recipient of an associate degree in either plumbing or sanitary engineering, and has been registered by the department of labor and training as an apprentice plumber for at least two (2) years and at all times while being employed as a registered apprentice plumber by a duly licensed master plumber in this state for a period of two (2) years; or

(5) The application is accompanied by an affidavit or other reasonably satisfactory evidence showing that the applicant possesses a certificate of license, issued under the laws of another state, provided that the requirements are the same as the state specifying that person as a journeyperson plumber.

(6) The records of the hours of on-the-job training and the hours of related instruction should be maintained in a mutually responsible manner, through a joint effort on the part of the master plumber and the apprentice.

(7) The completed application is to be filed with the department at least fifteen (15) days prior to the examination date.

History of Section. (P.L. 1945, ch. 1661, § 14; G.L. 1956, § 5-20-17; R.P.L. 1957, ch. 116, § 4; P.L. 1960, ch. 76, § 9; P.L. 1966, ch. 160, § 3; P.L. 1974, ch. 155, § 1; P.L. 1978, ch. 172, § 1; P.L. 1980, ch. 182, § 1; P.L. 1981, ch. 132, § 1; P.L. 1986, ch. 52, § 1; P.L. 1986, ch. 389, § 1; P.L. 1989, ch. 321, § 1; P.L. 1996, ch. 164, § 2; P.L. 1997, ch. 227, § 1; P.L. 1998, ch. 470, § 1; P.L. 1999, ch. 115, § 1; P.L. 2001, ch. 214, § 2; P.L. 2002, ch. 65, art. 13, § 4; P.L. 2002, ch. 378, § 1; P.L. 2003, ch. 427, § 1; P.L. 2004, ch. 595, art. 13, § 2; P.L. 2008, ch. 291, § 3; P.L. 2008, ch. 413, § 3; P.L. 2019, ch. 308, art. 1, § 10.)