The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently rescinded the requirement for labor unions valued at $250,000 or greater to submit a Form T-1 due to the information already being readily available elsewhere.
The Final Rule on ‘Labor Organization Annual Financial Report for Trusts in which a Labor Organization is Interested, Form T-1’ was rescinded on Dec. 29, 2021, a DOL press release said. The measure, in place since March 6, 2020, was seen as diverting resources better used in other capacities.
“After an extensive review, the Office of Labor-Management Standards found that enforcing the filing of the Form T-1 may actually deprive the department of resources needed to enforce the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act,” Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) Director Jeffrey Freund said in the release.
DOL proposed to rescind the Form T-1 rule on March 29, 2021, advising authorities not to enforce the rule “until one year after the date a labor organization’s first Form T-1 was due,” the release said. After reviewing input from stakeholders, the department decided the form would not provide their investigators with any additional information not already available through agencies such as the Employee Benefits Security Administration and the IRS.
“The rescission of this rule will allow OLMS to devote more resources to holding employers and union officials responsible when they violate the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act,” Freund said in the release.
Form T-1 required labor unions valued at $250,000 or more to report “the finances of certain trusts in which they are interested, such as apprenticeship and training plans, labor-management cooperation committees, strike funds, and building corporations,” the release said.
