News Release

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ESA News Release: [06/27/2007]
Contact Name: Dolline Hatchett or David James
Phone Number: (202) 693-4676
Release Number: 07-0992-NAT

U.S. Labor Department publishes revised form for union officer and employee reporting

Revised Form LM-30 improves disclosure and increases transparency

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor on Monday, July 2, 2007 will publish in the Federal Register a final rule that enhances reporting by union officers and employees. The revised Form LM-30 will provide union members with more complete information about payments or other gifts or benefits that union officers and employees receive from certain types of employers and businesses. The form will ensure that union members are aware of payments that represent actual or potential conflicts of interest that may threaten a union officer’s or employee’s ability to represent the best interests of their union and its members.

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) requires union officers and employees to file a report with the Department of Labor for any year in which they engaged in certain transactions or arrangements with:

1. An employer whose employees their union represents or is actively seeking to represent;
2. Other employers that come within certain designated categories; and
3. A business that deals with the labor organization, a trust in which the labor organization is interested (such as a pension plan), or an employer whose employees the union represents or is actively seeking to represent.

There are certain exceptions to these reporting requirements. For example, payments or gifts totaling $250 or less do not have to be reported, and payments or gifts valued at $20 or less do not need to be counted when determining whether the $250 threshold has been met. A union officer who is a bona fide employee of an employer whose employees the union represents would not have to report the wages and other benefits received as such an employee. The following are examples of situations that must be reported:

1. Directors’ fees and reimbursed expenses to a union officer who is a member of the board of directors of an employer whose employees the officer’s union represents;
2. A gift to a union officer or employee from an employer who is in competition with an employer whose employees the official’s union represents;
3. A union official’s spouse’s ownership interest in and income from a catering business that is used by the union; and
4. A union official’s receipt of pay in excess of 250 hours from the official’s employer under a “no-docking” provision in a collective bargaining agreement (under such a provision, union officials may devote part of their work time to union business, such as processing grievances, with no loss of pay).

The rule will be effective August 16, 2007 however; labor organization officers and employees are not required to use the revised Form LM-30 for reports for fiscal years that began before the effective date. Reports for earlier periods of time, including 2007, may be filed on the current Form LM-30. Compliance assistance is available in the form of Web-based products at www.olms.dol.gov and questions may be sent to olms-public@dol.gov.

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