• Any employer engaged in a transaction with a union, union official, employee, or labor relations consultant must file Form LM-10.
• Form LM-10 must be filed within 90 days after the end of the fiscal year.

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA), as amended, requires public disclosure of specific financial transactions or arrangements made between an employer and a labor organization, union official, employee, or labor relations consultant.

Every employer who has engaged in any such transaction or arrangement during the fiscal year must file a detailed report with the Secretary of Labor. The Secretary has prescribed the filing of the Employer Report, Form LM-10, for employers to satisfy this reporting requirement.

These reporting requirements only relate to the disclosure of specified payments, not whether specific payments, transactions, or arrangements are lawful or unlawful. Whether a particular payment, transaction, or arrangement is or is not required to be reported is not an indication of if it is subject to any legal prohibition.

Any employer, as defined by the LMRDA, who has engaged in certain financial transactions or arrangements of the type described in Section 203(a) of the Act with any labor organization, union official, employee, or labor relations consultant, or who has made expenditures for certain objects relating to activities of employees or a union, must file a Form LM-10. An employer required to file must complete only one Form LM-10 each fiscal year that covers all instances of reportable activity, even if activity occurs at multiple locations.

Recordkeeping and Form LM-10

Individuals required to file Form LM-10 are responsible for maintaining records which will provide, in sufficient detail, the information and data necessary to verify the accuracy and completeness of the report.

Employers must retain the records for at least five years after filing the report, as well as any record necessary to verify, explain, or clarify the report, including, but not limited to:

• Vouchers
• Worksheets
• Receipts
• Applicable resolutions

Reporting financial transactions

The types of financial transactions, arrangements, or expenditures which must be reported are set forth in Form LM-10. The LMRDA states that every employer involved in any such transaction or arrangement during the fiscal year must file a detailed report with the Secretary of Labor indicating the following:

• The date of each arrangement;
• The date and amount of each transaction;
• The name, address, and position of the person with whom the agreement or transaction was made; and
• A full explanation of the circumstances of all payments made, including the terms of any agreement or understanding pursuant to which they were made.

Form LM-10 is divided into two parts: Part A and Part B. Item 8 of Part A contains six questions pertaining to reportable employer activities. Before completing any portion of the report, employers should review these questions thoroughly and answer them, accounting for the exclusions listed in the instructions.

If the answer to each of these questions is “no,” employers should not file this report. But if the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” they should complete both Part A and a separate Part B for each “yes” answer. If any “yes” answer applies to more than one person or organization, they should complete a separate Part B for each one.

Employers must file Form LM-10 annually, and they must disclose:

• Payments or other financial arrangements made to any union, its officers, or its employees;
  • This does not include those permitted under Section 302(c) of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), and payments and loans by banks and similar institutions;
• Payments to any employees for the purpose of causing them to persuade other employees with respect to their bargaining and representation rights, unless they are told about these payments before or at the time they are made;
• Payments for the purpose of:
  • Interfering with employees in the exercise of their bargaining and representation rights; or
  • Obtaining information on employee or union activities in connection with labor disputes involving their company; and
• Arrangements, and payments made under these arrangements, with a labor relations consultant or any other person for the purpose of:
  • Persuading employees with respect to their bargaining and representation rights; or
  • Obtaining information concerning employee activities in a labor dispute involving their company.

In addition to this report, the Secretary of Labor may require employers subject to the LMRDA to submit special reports on relevant information, including but not necessarily confined to, reports involving specifically identified personnel on particular matters referred to in the second paragraph of the instructions for Item 8.a.

While Section 203 of the LMRDA does not amend or modify the rights protected by the NLRA, it contains no provision exempting the protected activities from the reporting requirements. Therefore, employers must report activities of the type set forth in Item 8, since the LMRDA requires such reports, regardless of if the activities are protected by the NLRA.

Employers should note, however, that the information they are required to report in response to Item 8.c does not include expenditures relating exclusively to matters protected by Section 8(c) of the NLRA, because the definition in Section 203(g) of the LMRDA of the term “interfere with, restrain, or coerce,” which is used in Item 8.c, does not cover such matters.

Each employer, as defined in the LMRDA, who has engaged in any of the transactions or arrangements described in the form and instructions must file Form LM-10 within 90 days after the end of their fiscal year.