As director of the R.I. Department of Labor and Training, Lita Orefice oversees a cabinet-level agency with an annual budget of roughly $450 million and a staff of 500.
The department is responsible for providing a comprehensive array of employment and training services to Rhode Islanders, plus it manages the state’s temporary disability insurance (TDI) and unemployment insurance programs, administers trade licenses, provides services to dislocated workers and enforces a variety of worker-protection statutes, including workers’ compensation laws, workplace safety regulations, and minimum-wage and child-labor laws.
PBN: Can you describe the job growth picture in Rhode Island in recent years?
OREFICE: I think Rhode Island has over the last few years been pretty slowly but steadily growing. You see a lot of variation from month to month, but when you compare us to other New England states, generally we continue to grow jobs. In the last count, we’re at about 16,000, 17,000 new jobs over the last four years. What I love about this last year is, we’ve seen more Rhode Island residents working than ever before. So … we’re not moving nearly as fast as anybody would like us to, but we continue to slowly and steadily gain ground.
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PBN: How about in the last few months, how does that look?
OREFICE: The first few months of this year have been good, but I don’t want to paint too rosy a picture. You know, New England is struggling generally; the country is starting to struggle generally.
What’s good in Rhode Island is that, because we are a relatively diverse economy, we have a lot of different industries that are hot right now in Rhode Island – financial services, health care of course, construction, biotech and other technology, the marine trades, advanced manufacturing, hospitality and tourism. … So when you see big changes in one particular industry, it’s not felt as extremely in Rhode Island as you might see it, like what happened in Massachusetts when they had the technology bust. … The downside of course is, you know, you see a particular industry take off, we don’t necessarily go as fast as you might see in other places.
PBN: What are the challenges in growing jobs?
OREFICE: A lot of Rhode Island’s challenges are New England’s challenges. … The biggest challenges for us right now are things like creating a skilled and high-skilled work force, helping people understand the importance of literacy, educational attainment, problem-solving, attention to customer service – things like that have become increasingly important in this economy. …
What we’re finding is, the nature of the workplace is changing. Manufacturing is moving to advanced manufacturing … even in the construction trades, the technology is changing, and people need to continuously learn. Adult literacy is a huge issue for this state, which is one of the reasons why the governor has spent so much time investing in adult basic education programs and English-as-a-second-language programs.
PBN: So along those lines, what is your department doing to bolster the work force?
OREFICE: We’ve got a number of initiatives going on. If there’s a theme, it would be a lot of work trying to collaborate and partner with other agencies. … I’ll give you an example – the governor a couple of years ago created a Pre-K to 16 Council as a way to get higher education, elementary and secondary education to better coordinate on educational attainment issues. But he also invited me and the chairman of the Governor’s Workforce Board and the Economic Development Corporation to the table, recognizing that this wasn’t just about education, but that education was about, “What are we doing to invest in the people of Rhode Island and in the work force?”
PBN: You’ve also developed some industry partnerships?
OREFICE: It’s an initiative that has come out of the Governor’s Workforce Board conversation. … When we’re trying to figure out what it is that industry wants, we don’t have a good mechanism for doing that. …
What we’ve found is that other states have had a lot of success with these industry partnerships. … What they’ve discovered is, if they come together and talk about longer-term solutions, they’re going to be better off, and we’re going to be better off as government to listen to them and work our investments in a way that benefits industry as a whole.
PBN: Can you talk about the “Rhody Red” campaign?
OREFICE: Oh, my workers’ comp chicken – I love him! “Worker’s comp! comp! comp!” (Laughs.)
This is the other side of my department. … The other part of what we do is protect workers, and we educate employers about what their responsibilities are in terms of workers’ rights and workplace safety and things like that. The “Rhody Red” campaign is connected to our workers’ comp program, and this goes back to The Station fire.
What you’ll recall is that [among the] fallout of The Station fire – and The Station fire occurred before I got to DLT – was, we discovered that the Derderians did not have workers’ compensation insurance, so their employees who were killed and hurt in the fire were not covered. So we’ve spent a lot of time on that, we’ve beefed up our fraud unit and spent a lot of time making sure that companies are doing the right thing. …
What we were finding with workers’ comp is … not enough people really knew what the law was. … So the Rhody Red project was really to get the word out. … It’s geared toward employers, but also toward employees, because you don’t want to be working for an employer who doesn’t have coverage. … And we’ve set up a hotline [462-2667 (462-COMP), or 462-8006 TTY or WCFraud@dltri.gov] so that people can report it … and this hotline helps keep the competitive playing field level for employers, as well as helps us enforce the rules.
Interview: Adelita S. “Lita” Orefice
POSITION: Director, R.I. Department of Labor and Training.
BACKGROUND: Orefice was appointed director of the Department of Labor and Training in March 2004. She was previously director of the R.I. Department of Elderly Affairs, and before that, since 1999, she had been finance director for the R.I. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, where she managed federal and state funds totaling nearly $1 billion. She began her career with the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C., where she served in a variety of positions, including as a special assistant in the Office of the Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Policy and Budget.
EDUCATION: B.A. in government, 1987, Harvard University; MPM (master of public management) in public administration, 1992, University of Maryland School of Public Affairs
RESIDENCE: Providence
AGE: 41
