Number: 14-05

August 29, 2005

Form LM-30: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Request for Comments

The Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) today published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to revise the Form LM-30 and its instructions. The broad purpose of Form LM-30 is to disclose possible conflicts between the personal financial interests of a union officer or employee and his or her duty to the union and its members. Form LM-30 is used by officers and employees of labor organizations subject to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA). The LMRDA requires public disclosure of certain financial interests held, income received, and transactions engaged in by labor organization officers and employees and their spouses and minor children. Subject to certain exclusions, these interests, incomes, and transactions include: 1) payments or benefits from, or interests in, an employer whose employees the filer's union represents or is actively seeking to represent; 2) transactions involving interests in, or loans to or from, an employer whose employees the filer's union represents or is actively seeking to represent; 3) interests in, income from, or transactions with a business a substantial part of which consists of dealing with an employer whose employees the filer's union represents or is actively seeking to represent; 4) interests in, income from, or transactions with a business that deals with the filer's union or a trust in which the filer's union is interested; 5) transactions or arrangements with an employer whose employees the filer's union represents or is actively seeking to represent; and 6) payments from an employer or labor relations consultant.

Form LM-30 has remained essentially unchanged in the more than 40 years since 1963, when the Department of Labor first approved it. Over the past several years, the Department has engaged in a process to improve the administration of the LMRDA, including the design and usefulness of the financial reports required by the Act. In the course of this process, a number of problems were identified with Form LM-30. This proposed rule would address these problems by

  • Clarifying the instructions by explaining the key terms used in the Act and instructions, and by providing examples of the financial matters that must be reported under each subsection of the Act;
  • Eliminating exemptions that permit filers to not report financial matters that would otherwise be required to be reported under the Act, and which present the potential of conflicts of interests for union officers and employees;
  • Improving disclosure by creating a summary table on the front page of the report, supported by schedules, for disclosing 1) the filer's interests, payments, loans, transactions or arrangements, 2) the other party to these financial practices, and 3) the dealings, if any, between the party and the filer's labor organization or the employer whose employees the filer's labor organization represents or actively seeks to represent.

The Department invites comment on this proposed rule with respect to the benefits of these changes, the ease or difficulty with which labor organization officers and employees will be able to comply with these changes, and whether the changes will be meaningful, useful, and in accordance with the purposes of the LMRDA, which are to disclose to union members and the public information about certain financial interests of union officials. Interested parties and the public are invited to draw upon their experience with similar conflict and disclosure standards in other settings such as government employment, accounting, corporate governance, legal and judicial practice, medicine, and journalism. The Department invites general and specific comment on any aspect of the rule; it also invites comment on specific points, as noted throughout the text of the proposal.

Comments must be received on or before October 28, 2005.

You may submit comments, identified by RIN 1215-AB49, by any of the following methods:

  • Fax: (202) 693-1340. To assure access to the fax equipment, only comments of five or fewer pages will be accepted via fax transmittal, unless arrangements are made prior to faxing, by calling (202) 693-0123 and scheduling a time for fax receipt.
  • Mail: Mailed comments should be sent to Kay Oshel, Director of the Office of Policy, Reports and Disclosure, Office of Labor-Management Standards, U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room N-5605, Washington, DC 20210. Because the Department continues to experience delays in U.S. mail delivery due to the ongoing concerns involving toxic contamination, you should take this into consideration when preparing to meet the deadline for submitting comments.

Comments will be available for public inspection during normal business hours at the above address.

For additional information and links to the Federal Register Notice, please visit the LM-30 NPRM page on the OLMS Web site.

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Last Updated: 09/12/05