News Release
US Department of Labor awards $8M to support enhanced tracing of goods made with child, forced labor and other exploitive practices in three countries
WASHINGTON, DC – Detecting child labor and forced labor in complex supply chains can be a daunting challenge. Fragmented and dispersed global-sourcing operations sometimes makes supply chains opaque, and research shows the risk of exploitative labor practices increases greatly in activities such as extraction of raw material and agricultural work, as they support other industries.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced today two $4 million awards for cooperative agreements to Verité Inc. and ELEVATE Limited to implement technical assistance projects to increase the downstream tracing of goods made by child labor or forced labor.
The award to Verité will support pilot upstream tracing of raw cotton, thread/yarn and textiles in India. ELEVATE’s award will support pilot tracing in supply chains for cotton in Pakistan and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The grant is made available through the department’s 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.
