Compliance August 29, 2005

DoL Issues Notice of Form LM-30 Changes

August 29, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Department of Labor's (DoL's) Office of Labor Management Standards (OLMS) has published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update the Form LM-30, required by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (LMRDA).
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The LM-30 disclosure form is required to be used by labor union officers and employees to report potential conflicts of interest, including those involving union benefit plans.

In a press release, the DoL said its OLMS ended a “grace period” for union officers and employees to comply with the statutory LM-30 filing requirements on August 15.   Along with the AFL-CIO and other unions, it provided extensive assistance on what transactions and financial activities should be reported.   During the grace period, the OLMS received over 10,000 submissions, compared to 60 to 90 filed annually in past years, according to the release.

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The DoL, in its news release, says the proposed changes to the Form LM-30 seeks to simplify filing requirements and close loopholes in the current form by:

  • Explaining key terms used in the statute and providing examples of financial matters that must be reported,
  • eliminating exemptions that allow filers to exclude certain financial matters that would otherwise be part of LMRDA reporting requirements and could present potential conflicts of interests for union officers and employees
  • making the report clearer for union members to review by adding a summary table on the front page of the report and supporting schedules.

The DoL will receive public comment on the notice before October 28 via the web portal OLMS-REG-1215-AB49@dol.gov .

The published notice can be found    here .

Compliance August 26, 2005

Recovering Losses For Individual Participants Is Recovery For The Plan

August 26, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has disagreed with a lower court decision that an ERISA case be dismissed because it was seeking financial recovery of losses on behalf of some plan participants and not the plan as a whole.
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In the 3 rd Circuit’s  opinion , it said at issue was “whether the complaint seeks relief for the Schering-Plough Employees’ Savings Plan based on allegations that there were ‘losses to the plan resulting from [a] breach’ of fiduciary duty.   In the opinion, the court pointed out that Section 1109 of ERISA allows recovery of “any losses” to the plan and doesn’t just allow recovery of losses that will be distributed to all participants.

The court also pointed out that a loss to any investment, though held in individual accounts, is a loss to the plan since all assets are held in trust by the plan.

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Two employees of Schering-Plough Corp. sued the plan for breaches in fiduciary duty after company stock prices fell drastically.   Company stock was offered as an investment option in the company’s retirement savings plan.   According to an EBIA report, the employees alleged that the plan fiduciaries breached their duties by continuing to offer company stock when they new the price was “unlawfully and artificially inflated.”  

The lower court dismissed the suit saying it sought relief for individual participant losses and not the plan as a whole.   The 3 rd Circuit now says the suit may go to trial and the plaintiffs may seek monetary relief for their losses.

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