The Department of Labor announced Tuesday it plans to spend nearly $1.4 million “to support anti-discrimination labor laws in Mexico.”
“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.”
Applications for the grant “must be submitted in English” by 4 p.m. on Nov. 7, so get cracking! The DOL says their 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,” and that “the successful grantee” must be prepared to “design and implement public awareness campaigns” and “revise existing inspection methodologies and materials to reflect the 2012 legal reforms.”
The Mexican Federal Labor Law Reform of 2012 has been called “one of the most significant legislative developments of the administration led by former President Felipe Calderón.” Among other things, it defines sexual harassment and bullying as fireable offenses, repealed the closed-shop rule requiring workers ousted from their unions to be fired, grants fathers at least five days of paternity leave and explicitly states that “it is unlawful to discriminate on account of national or ethnic origin, sex, age, health, disability, religion, migratory status, sexual orientation, or civil status.”
The grant-winner will be announced by Dec. 31.