Proposed Rule would Amend Union Disclosure Form LM-30

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.

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