OLMS Rescinds Form T-1 Filing Requirement

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) is proposing to rescind the Form T-1 Trust Annual Report and instead require that unions report information on their wholly owned, controlled, and financed subsidiary organizations on their LM-2 forms. The Department of Labor (DOL) proposes to amend these regulations because it believes that the trust reporting required under the rule is overly broad and is not necessary to prevent the circumvention and evasion of the reporting requirements.

Also, in interpreting the definition of ‘‘labor organization’’ under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, the DOL proposes to return to its long held view that the statute’s coverage does not encompass intermediate bodies that are wholly composed of public sector organizations. In so doing, the DOL has reconsidered a definitional interpretation that it adopted in 2003, which the DOL now considers to have been insufficiently supported during the rulemaking process. Public comments on these proposals are sought and must be received on or before April 5, 2010.