WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $4 million in grant funding to strengthen worker rights in rural sectors of the Indo-Pacific, with a focus on women workers. The grant will fund the implementation of a project to improve compliance with labor standards, including occupational safety and health standards, and to address wage inequality and workplace discrimination for women employees in targeted rural sectors in the Philippines and one or two other Indo-Pacific countries.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award two $10 million grants focused on Mexico. Funding for these grants was appropriated as part of the legislation implementing the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) today announced its intent to award up to $8 million in grant funding for up to two technical assistance projects to improve downstream tracing of goods made by child labor or forced labor. The grant will support the recipient’s development of tested supply-chain methodologies, piloted tools for supply-chain tracing, and disseminating supply-chain tracing tools and methodologies to stakeholders.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award two grants of up to $4 million each to increase the number of cocoa cooperatives demonstrating a reduction of child labor in the cocoa supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $5 million in grant funding to reduce child labor in Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, with a focus on the informal sector, using a gender-focused approach.

Made available through the Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), the grant will focus on vulnerable women and adolescent girls, from age 5 to 17, working in agriculture.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $4.5 million in grant funding to reduce child labor in mica-producing communities in Madagascar.

WASHINGTON, DC – The United States today named panelists for the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, a key tool for the enforcement of the United-States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) labor protections. The U.S. national panelists are Janice Bellace, Lance Compa, Peter Hurtgen, Ira Jaffe, Kevin Kolben and Ed Potter.

“The U.S. Department of Labor is pleased that some of the best and brightest in the labor field have been appointed to this vital enforcement panel of the USMCA,” said Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) entered into force today as the U.S. Department of Labor affirmed its commitment to upholding the agreement’s labor provisions.

MITCHELL, SD – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Custom Genetic Solutions LLC – a bull stud facility in Mitchell, South Dakota – for exposing workers to hazardous chemicals and toxic substances after an employee fatality. The company faces penalties of $122,602 for two willful and three serious violations.

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Trump has taken an enormous step forward in the fight against human trafficking by issuing the Combatting Human Trafficking and Online Child Exploitation in the United States Executive Order. This order comes twenty years after the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which greatly strengthened federal criminal prohibitions against trafficking and related offenses.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced it is providing up to $27.2 million in grant funding to help Mexico meet its labor obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), including the effective enforcement of its labor laws and addressing child labor and forced labor in its supply chains.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the award of $22 million in new grant funding to promote labor law enforcement and help end exploitative labor practices in at least five trade partner countries. The funds will support projects to combat abusive labor practices, including the use of child labor, forced labor and human trafficking.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Martha Newton released the following statement recognizing National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor's Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs Martha Newton released the following statement recognizing National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month:

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the release of the Annual Report of the Child Labor Cocoa Coordinating Group. This report is released on behalf of the signatories to the Declaration of Joint Action to Support Implementation of the Harkin-Engel Protocol, which was signed by the U.S. Department of Labor, the governments of Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana and the National Confectioners Association, on behalf of the international chocolate and cocoa industry.

WASHINGTON, DC - The U.S. Department of Labor today released the 18th annual edition of its Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. The report, prepared by the Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), shines a spotlight on child labor globally and assesses the progress some countries have made in upholding their international commitments to eliminate this practice.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award a $5 million grant for a project to economically empower vulnerable women and girls in the agricultural sector in Colombia, as part of the administration's support of the Women's Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP).

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intent to award up to $4 million in grant funding to assist workers in priority sectors of Colombia in exercising their labor rights. Grant activities will focus on developing centers that educate workers on their rights, train them to identify potential labor law violations in workplaces, and assist workers to submit and track well-supported, well-articulated claims to initiate labor inspections and pursue legal remedies. 

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta and Mr. Yousuf Mohamed Al Othman Fakhroo, Minister of Administrative Development, Labor, and Social Affairs of Qatar, signed a memorandum of understanding today recognizing the value of cooperation and knowledge-sharing for strengthening protection for workers.

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta and Hubertus Heil, the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, signed a Joint Declaration of Intent underlining the value of cooperation in various areas of international labor policy and practice between the two countries.