Therefore, activists should be prepared to take action immediately in support of this critically important legislation. Other successful re-authorized programs include numerous law enforcement efforts that provide tools and training to local police officials. The bill creates four new laws as well as amends 10 existing state and federal laws. A special focus is violence in the workplace and the bill proposes to establish a National Workplace Clearinghouse on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault and prohibits employers from taking adverse job actions against an employee because that employee has been a victim of a crime. This title also provides tax credits to businesses implementing workplace safety programs to combat violence against women and it authorizes grant aid for developing, testing and disseminating model programs to provide education and training to employers and supervisors who are likely to come into contact with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in the course of their employment.
Statistics show that workplace violence is a serious national problem.
Additionally, the bill states a sense of Congress that workers'compensation benefits should be afforded to women who have been injured in the workplace, including full compensation for physical or non-physical injuries. Workers' compensation programs are administered by state governments. Further, the bill stipulates that women who survive crimes such as rape, domestic violence and sexual assault at work should be able to pursue other legal actions, based on the employers' role in the workplace violence. This provision stems from several major employers' attempts to avoid liability by offering workers' compensation only to employee-victims of sexual assault at the worksite. One important provision prohibits discrimination in issuing and administering insurance policies to victims of domestic violence with uniform protection from insurance discrimination.