Proposed Rule would Amend Union Disclosure Form LM-30

Posted on August 10, 2010 by Ilyse Schuman

The Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) has published a proposed rule (pdf) to modify union disclosure Form LM-30 and its instructions. The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) requires labor organization officers and employees and their spouses and minor children to publicly disclose certain financial interests held, income received, and transactions engaged in to prevent any conflicts of interest. Such disclosures are made on the Form LM-30, (pdf) which was last amended in 2007.  According to the OLMS, these changes “left unresolved fundamental questions about the reporting obligations of union officials, questions raising policy and legal issues warranting reexamination by the Department.” Therefore, on March 19, 2009, the OLMS issued a non-enforcement policy that allowed affected parties to file either the 2007 or previous LM-30 form while it sought input as to whether and how to amend the form yet again. The agency claims that the proposed changes published in the August 10 edition of the Federal Register address “the complexity of the form and its instructions, as well as the scope and extent of the LM-30 reporting obligations.”

Specifically, the proposed changes would accomplish the following:

  • Return to the pre-2007 practice whereby union officers and employees were not required to report compensation they received under union leave and “no docking” policies established under collective bargaining agreements or by custom and practice of the workplace.
  • Exclude union stewards and similar union representatives, such as a member of a safety committee or a bargaining committee, from having to file Form LM-30.
  • Create an administrative exemption whereby union officials would generally need to report only loans – such as home mortgages – from bona fide credit institutions if the terms of such loans are on terms more favorable than those available to the public.
  • Limit the reporting obligation with respect to interests in and payments from employers that compete against employers represented by the official’s union or that the union actively seeks to represent, modify the scope of reporting with respect to payments from certain trusts and unions, and exempt union officials from reporting payments they receive from trusts or, as a general rule, from unions.
  • Hold union officers and employees to the same reporting obligations under the LMRDA.

The OLMS believes that the revisions would simplify the form, narrow the scope of reporting, and therefore lessen the reporting burden, including associated costs, for union officials.

Comments must be identified by the Regulatory Identification Number (RIN) 1215-AB74 or RIN 1245-AA01 and submitted no later than October 12, 2010. Written comments should be sent to: Denise M. Boucher, Director of the Office of Policy, Reports and Disclosure, Office of Labor-Management Standards, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W., Room N-5609, Washington, DC 20210. Alternatively, comments may be sent electronically through the federal eRulemaking portal: www.regulations.gov.

Photo credit: style-photographs
Tags: , , ,
  • Email This
  • Print
  • Trackbacks
  • Share Link

Office of Labor-Management Standards Plans to Revise the LM-30 Financial Disclosure Form

Posted on April 28, 2009 by Jay Sumner

The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) has announced that it plans to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding revisions to the Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report (LM-30) financial disclosure form. Form LM-30, which had been revised in 2007, requires union officers and employees (except employees performing exclusively clerical or custodial services) to report certain financial transactions and financial interests in order to make public any actual or potential conflict between their personal financial interests and their obligations to the labor organization and its members. The proposed rulemaking will focus on the changes made by the 2007 regulatory revisions which, the agency claims, dramatically altered the old Form LM-30 and instructions that had not substantially changed in over 40 years.

The new LM-30 raised the ire of organized labor, as it imposed new requirements and expanded the form from two to nine pages. The AFL-CIO filed a lawsuit – AFL-CIO v. Chao – in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to enjoin the use of the new form, alleging that the DOL lacked the authority to impose the new rule, and that the form’s expanded requirements are arbitrary and capricious. This case is still pending. The revised rule will address the scope and extent of the reporting obligations, and the questions raised by the recent litigation. Until these questions are resolved, the OLMS will accept either the old Form LM-30 or the new one for compliance purposes.

Tags: , , ,
  • Email This
  • Print
  • Trackbacks
  • Share Link