Nearly $1.4M in funding to support anti-discrimination labor laws in Mexico
now available from US Labor Department

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of International Labor Affairs today announced a $1,389,000 competitive solicitation for a project to assist the government of Mexico to combat labor discrimination by supporting enforcement of the strengthened anti-discrimination provisions in Mexico's Federal Labor Law Reform of 2012.

"Countries like Mexico are making welcome progress in reforming laws to better protect workers from discrimination and harassment based on gender or sexual orientation," said Carol Pier, deputy undersecretary of labor for international affairs. "This project will support the Mexican government's efforts to more effectively enforce such non-discrimination provisions of the Mexican Federal Labor Law Reform of 2012."

The goal is to increase compliance with the expanded protections against labor discrimination under Mexican labor law, with a specific focus on combating gender discrimination, forced pregnancy testing, sexual harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The project will focus on improving enforcement of these protections by labor inspectors, increasing employer participation in government social compliance programs that incorporate best practices to combat labor discrimination, and raising public awareness of the recent legal reforms on labor discrimination.

To achieve the project's goal, the successful grantee will:

• revise existing inspection methodologies and materials to reflect the 2012 legal reforms,
• develop an electronic module on such labor discrimination for incorporation into the existing electronic inspection planning and tracking system,
• train labor inspectors,
• incorporate best practices for combating labor discrimination into existing social compliance programs and provide support for their expansion, and
• design and implement public awareness campaigns.

Any commercial, international, educational or nonprofit organization(s), including any faith-based, community-based or public international organization capable of successfully implementing the activities outlined in the solicitation is eligible to apply.

Applications must be submitted in English by Friday, Nov. 7, at 4 p.m. EDT electronically via http://www.grants.gov or in hard copy to the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Grants Management, Attention: Donna Kelly, Grant Officer, Reference SCA-14-25, 200 Constitution Ave. NW, Room N-4716, Washington, DC 20210.

The award will be made by Dec. 31. The funding opportunity announcement (SCA-14-25) is available online at http://www.grants.gov and http://www.dol.gov/ilab/grants/.