U.S. Department of Labor Revises Form LM-30 for Union Officers, Employees and Trustees

On Oct. 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Labor-Management Standards issued a revised Form LM-30 with instructions for use by Union officers and employees beginning in the 2012 calendar year (and due Mar. 31, 2013). As Willig, Williams & Davison has advised in the past, Form LM-30 requires Union officers and employees to report things of value received from employers and vendors with whom a Union or a Union trust fund has a relationship or would-be relationship, if such items are more than a certain dollar amount and if they are not exempt.

The most significant pieces of the revised Form LM-30 and instructions are:

1. Union trustees do not have to report on Form LM-30 expenses paid directly or reimbursed by their trust funds for things like educational conferences. Note, however, if a Union or management trustee receives $5,000 or more in such payments from a single plan in a single plan year, then the plan will have to report these payments on a Schedule C of its own Form 5500.


2. Things of value from a single employer or vendor in a year that total $250 or less continue to be exempt from reporting on Form LM-30. Similarly, Union officers and employees may continue to ignore items of $20 or less in determining if they received more than the $250 exemption.   


3. Union officers, employees and rank-and-file members do not need to report pay that they receive from an employer for Union leave, or under “no-docking” clauses in their Collective Bargaining Agreements. Thus, for example, stewards and rank-and-file members who receive pay from their employers for time spent adjusting grievances, attending arbitrations, or participating in negotiations, will not have to report it on Form LM-30.

The new guidance states that for 2011 filings due on Mar. 30, 2012, Union officers and employees can continue to use the 2003 version of Form LM-30 and its instructions. Effectively, then, the Department has eliminated the need to use, or even refer to, the 2007 Form LM-30 and instructions, which the Department issued at the end of the Bush administration to near-unanimous objections from Unions, employers and vendors involved in Labor-Management relations.

Click here to go to the Department’s Web page describing the new guidance. If you have any questions on this recent Form LM-30, please contact the Labor Group or Benefits Group at Willig, Williams & Davidson.