U.S. Department of Labor to Award $4 Million Grant to Improve Worker Rights in Rural Sectors of the Indo-Pacific with a Focus on Women Workers

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.

The project’s strategy for achieving these outcomes is to develop and make available tools and resources that enable employers, workers and government bodies of the Philippines and other Indo-Pacific countries to monitor and remediate violations of labor standards and to improve working conditions.

The grant will be made available through the Bureau of International Labor Affairs, whose mission is to promote a fair global playing field for workers in the U.S. and around the world by enforcing trade commitments, strengthening labor standards and combating international child labor, forced labor and human trafficking. Learn more about the Department’s work on these issues.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.