The Healthy Families Act: A Section-by-Section Summary

Domestic violence is violence committed by a person who is a current or former spouse of the victim; shares a child in common as a spouse with the victim; is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim as a spouse or intimate partner; or is similarly situated to a spouse of the victim under the domestic or family violence laws of the jurisdiction in which the victim lives or the jurisdict. [...] Defined as it is in the Fair Labor Standards Act to mean any state of the United States or the District of Columbia or any territory or possession of the United States. [...] Employers who violate the Act are liable to the affected employees for any wages, salary, benefits or other compensation lost as a result of the violation, or – if there was no such loss related to the violation – for actual monetary losses up to the amount of 56 hours of the employee’s wages or salary. [...] For complaints involving employees of the Government Accountability Office and the Library of Congress, the authority of the Secretary of Labor shall be exercised respectively by the Comptroller General of the United States and the Librarian of Congress; claims involving employees covered by the Congressional Accountability Act, by civil service laws and by other federal acts shall be pursued subj. [...] It also provides that if there is an existing collective bargaining agreement in effect at the time the law becomes effective, the Act shall become effective on the date of termination of the agreement or 18 months after the issuance of the regulations, whichever is sooner.