Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request; Labor Organization and Auxiliary Reports, 80605-80607 [2024-22805]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 192 (Thursday, October 3, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 80605-80607]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-22805]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request; Labor Organization and Auxiliary Reports

AGENCY: Office of Labor-Management Standards, Department of Labor.

ACTION: Notice of information collection; request for comment.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), 
the DOL is soliciting public comments regarding the proposal to amend 
the currently approved information collection request under OMB Control 
Number 1245-0003, specifically its proposal to revise the Form LM-10 
Employer Report, and the Forms LM-20 and 21 filed by labor relations 
consultants, and their corresponding instructions, to require employers 
and their consultants to provide the Employment Identification Number 
(EIN) of the filer and other parties to the agreement for the 
performance of covered activities under Section 203 of the Labor--
Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). Additionally, the 
Department proposes to revise the Form LM-20 and its instructions to 
require primary consultants to provide the EIN for sub-consultants who 
performed covered activities under any part of the agreement and for 
sub-consultants to provide EIN and a mailing address for the primary 
consultants for whom they are performing services pursuant to the 
agreement. The Department also seeks to require each filer to provide 
the email addresses of the corresponding parties to the agreement that 
triggered the reporting requirement (underlying agreement). The email 
addresses will not appear on the submitted forms or otherwise be 
publicly available, but OLMS will seek to use the email

[[Page 80606]]

addresses to ensure compliance. Finally, the Department proposes a 
technical revision to the Form LM-1 instructions, Item 9, to match the 
corresponding item on the form.

DATES: The OMB will consider all written comments that the agency 
receives on or before December 2, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 60 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 60-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karen Torre, Chief of the Division of 
Interpretations and Regulations, Office of Labor-Management Standards, 
U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room N-5609, 
Washington, DC 20210, by telephone at (202) 693-0123 (this is not a 
toll-free number), (800) 877-8339 (TTY/TDD), or by email at [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Secretary of Labor administers and 
enforces provisions of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure 
Act of 1959, as amended, Public Law 86-257, 73 Stat. 519-546, codified 
at 29 U.S.C. 401-531. The LMRDA, in part, establishes labor-management 
transparency through reporting and disclosure requirements for labor 
organizations and officials, employers, labor relations consultants, 
and surety companies. Section 203(a) of the LMRDA imposes reporting 
requirements on employers who enter into specified financial 
transactions or arrangements with a labor union, union official, 
employee, or labor relations consultant. 29 U.S.C. 433(a). Section 
203(b) of the LMRDA additionally requires public disclosure of certain 
agreements or arrangements between any person, including labor 
relations consultants and other individuals and organizations, to 
undertake certain activities concerning employees or labor 
organizations. 29 U.S.C. 433(b). Under LMRDA section 208, the Secretary 
of Labor is authorized to issue, amend, and rescind rules and 
regulations prescribing the form and publication of required reports, 
as well as ``such other reasonable rules and regulations . . . as [s]he 
may find necessary to prevent the circumvention or evasion of such 
reporting requirements.'' 29 U.S.C. 438. The Secretary published the 
Form LM-10 ``Employer Report'' for employers, and the Form LM-20 
``Agreement and Activities Report'' and Form LM-21 ``Receipts and 
Disbursements Report'' for labor relations consultants.
    The Department seeks to amend the Form LM-10, Form LM-20, and Form 
LM-21 to supplement the identifying information OLMS already collects 
from employers and consultants. On Form LM-10, the Department seeks to 
revise Item 3 to include the EIN of the employer and to revise Item 9.d 
to include the EIN for each of the consultants. On Form LM-20, the 
Department seeks to revise Item 2 to include the EIN of the consultant 
filing and Item 6 to include the EIN for the employer. On Form LM-21, 
the Department seeks to revise Item 3 to include the EIN of the 
consultant filing, Item 5a and Item 15a to include the EIN of the 
employer with which the consultant entered into an agreement, and Item 
15c to include the EIN of the individual to whom any disbursement was 
made. An EIN uniquely identifies each employer or consultant, and its 
inclusion on the Form LM-10, Form LM-20, and Form LM-21 would avoid 
confusion and allow the public and employees to confirm the identity of 
filers and consultants more easily. This revision will also improve the 
efficiency of OLMS operations, as OLMS will be able to use the unique 
EIN number to differentiate existing filers from new filers, and 
crossmatch employer and consultant reports more effectively. If a 
consultant does not have an EIN, OLMS would require that the filing 
employer or other consultant identify the consultant by providing the 
consultant's LM file number, if it already had obtained one. In all 
situations, OLMS would require the filer to provide its email address 
and the email addresses for the other parties to the underlying 
agreement. While the email addresses would not appear on the submitted 
form, OLMS would be able to use the email addresses to contact parties 
to ensure compliance.
    The Department also seeks to amend the Form LM-20 to differentiate 
requirements for primary consultants and sub-consultants to the 
underlying employer-consultant agreement. These revisions to the Form 
LM-20 would require primary consultants to disclose whether any 
individuals through whom an employer-consultant agreement was performed 
is a sub-consultant and to provide the name and EIN of that sub-
consultant in Item 11.d, as well as require sub-consultants to provide 
the name, EIN, and mailing address of the primary consultant the sub-
consultant entered into agreement within Item 8. These revisions would 
help avoid confusion and allow the public and employees to confirm the 
identity of filers and consultants more easily, as well as provide 
greater efficiency to OLMS for cross-matching employer and consultant 
reports.
    These revisions neither change which employers or consultants are 
required to file Form LM-10, Form LM-20, and Form LM-21 reports, nor 
change the frequency with which any of the parties must file. The 
Department estimates that these revisions would add an additional five 
minutes of reporting burden for each of the Forms LM-10 and LM-21, and 
eight additional minutes for the Form LM-20, and would not affect the 
recordkeeping burden, since filers would already retain this 
information. The Department made this burden determination for the 
following reasons. Most employers and consultants already have access 
to their own EIN and will spend little to no time filling out this 
information. Many employers and consultants will also have little 
difficulty obtaining the EIN of other parties they work with and will 
spend little to no time filling out this information. Those employers 
and consultants that do not have access to their own EIN or the EIN of 
a party they are in an underlying agreement with can generally solve 
the problem relatively quickly by requesting the EIN, which will not 
cause a heavy burden. As such, the Department does not consider this a 
significant burden on any party filling out these forms. The Department 
estimates these revisions will result in a reporting burden increase of 
3,235 minutes for Form LM-10, 5,338 minutes for Form LM-20, and 485 
minutes for Form LM-21. This results in a total increase of 9,058 
burden minutes, or 150.97 burden hours.
    The Department also seeks to amend the instructions for Form LM-1 
to more accurately reflect the Form. The instructions for Item 9 will 
be updated to ask the filer for the name, title, organization, and 
address for any place other than the labor organization's mailing 
address where records necessary to verify the report are kept. This is 
a technical correction and will have no impact on the burden for any 
filers.
    The Department is seeking comment on the collection of the EIN on 
Forms LM-10, LM-20, and LM-21, as well as revisions to Form LM-20 to 
differentiate between primary consultants and sub-consultants to the 
employer-consultant agreement, which would additionally require the 
disclosure of EIN for those sub-consultants. The Department is seeking 
comments on the necessity of these revisions for the performance of 
OLMS, the accuracy of the estimated reporting burden, and any methods 
by

[[Page 80607]]

which OLMS could continue to minimize the burden of collecting 
information. The Department is also seeking comments on handling 
instances when a consultant or employer does not provide or does not 
have an EIN or a file number given by OLMS.
    If finalized after notice-and-comment, this ICR revision would 
require employers and labor relations consultants to file their 
reports, with the required EIN information, upon OIRA approval and 
necessary revisions to the electronic filing system.
    As this proposed form revision requires a revision to an existing 
information collection, the Department is submitting, contemporaneous 
with the publication of the document, an ICR to amend the burden 
estimates under OMB Control Number 1245-0003 and revise the PRA 
clearance to address the clearance term. A copy of this ICR, with 
applicable supporting documentation, including among other items a 
description of the likely respondents, proposed frequency of response, 
and estimated total burden, may be obtained free of charge from the 
RegInfo.gov website at: https://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAOMBHistory?ombControlNumber=1245-0003 (this link will be updated 
following publication of this proposal) or from the Department by 
contacting OLMS at 202-693-0123 (this is not a toll free number)/email: 
[email protected].
    Comments submitted in response to this notice will be considered, 
summarized, and/or included in the ICR the Department will submit to 
the Office of Management and Budget for approval of the information 
collection request; they will also become a matter of public record. 
Commenters are encouraged not to submit sensitive information (e.g., 
confidential business information or personally identifiable 
information such as a social security number).
    Comments are invited on: (1) whether the collection of information 
is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the 
Department, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimates of the burden and 
cost of the collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility and clarity of the information collection; and (4) ways to 
minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are 
to respond, including the use of automated collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology.
    This information collection is subject to the PRA. A Federal agency 
generally cannot conduct or sponsor a collection of information, and 
the public is generally not required to respond to an information 
collection, unless the OMB approves it and displays a currently valid 
OMB Control Number. In addition, notwithstanding any other provisions 
of law, no person shall generally be subject to penalty for failing to 
comply with a collection of information that does not display a valid 
OMB Control Number. See 5 CFR 1320.5(a) and 1320.6.
    DOL seeks PRA authorization for this information collection for 
three (3) years. OMB authorization for an ICR cannot be for more than 
three (3) years without renewal. The DOL notes that information 
collection requirements submitted to the OMB for existing ICRs receive 
a month-to-month extension while they undergo review.
    Agency: Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards.
    Type of Review: Revision of a currently approved collection.
    Title of Collection: Labor Organization and Auxiliary Reports.
    OMB Control Number: 1245-0003.
    Forms: LM-1--Labor Organization Information Report, LM-2, LM-3, LM- 
4--Labor Organization Annual Report, Simplified Annual Report, LM-10--
Employer Report, LM-15--Trusteeship Report, LM-15A--Report on Selection 
of Delegates and Officers, LM-16--Terminal Trusteeship Report, LM-20--
Agreement and Activities Report, LM-21--Receipts and Disbursements 
Report, LM-30--Labor Organization Officer and Employee Report, S-1--
Surety Company Annual Report.
    Affected Public: Private Sector--Business or other for-profits and 
not-for-profit institutions.
    Total Estimated Number of Annual Respondents: 32,791.
    Total Estimated Number of Responses: 35,067.
    Frequency: Varies.
    Total Estimated Annual Time Burden: 4,644,740 hours.
    Total Estimated Annual Other Costs Burden: $0.

(Authority: 44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A))

    Dated: September 27, 2024.
Jeffrey Freund,
Director, Office of Labor-Management Standards.
[FR Doc. 2024-22805 Filed 10-2-24; 8:45 am]
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