Olms interpretative Manual

SUPPLYINGOFINFORMATIONBYCONSULTANT

264.001LMRDA,SECTION203(b)(2)

. . . to supply an employer with information concerning the activities of employees or a labororganization in connection with a labor dispute involving such employer, except information foruse solely in conjunction with an administrative or arbitral proceeding or a criminal or civiljudicial proceeding;

5. 
   KNOWLEDGEOFPURPOSEFORINFORMATIONISIRRELEVANT
   

An organization which supplies information to an employer in connection with a labordispute is required to file a report even when it has no knowledge of the purpose for which theinformationis wanted.

Any doubt as to the purpose should be resolved by reporting.Even if a judicialproceedingwerepending,a reportwouldbeneeded ifthe employerhadadualpurpose.

5. 
   EMPLOYEESURVEY
   

During an effort by a union to organize his employees, an employer hired an "EmployeeOpinion Survey" firm to take a survey of his employees.Each employee was asked onequestion: "Do you feel a union here would help or harm you?""Why?" Employees did not puttheir names on the forms. After the forms where returned, the survey firm tabulated the results.After tabulation, the forms were destroyed by one of the employees of the survey firm.Theresultswerethenturnedovertomanagement.

Since these activities were designed to gather information and to supply it to theemployer for use in connection with a labor dispute, the survey organization must file reportsunderthe provisions ofsection203(b)(2).

SeeManualEntry257.400concerningtherequirement fortheemployer toreport.

264.100LABOR"SPIES"

The furnishing of persons to perform espionage or reporting work in connection with astrike,aspartoftheirduties,wouldhavetobereportedundersections203(a)(4)and203(b)(2)covering undertakings to supply the employer with information about the activities of theemployeesor the union in a labor dispute involving the employer.

(TechnicalRevisions:Dec.2016)

264.200SURVEILLANCE"INCONNECTION"WITHLABORDISPUTE

In order to be reportable under sections 203(a)(4) and 203(b)(2) of LMRDA, anagreement or arrangement between an employer and an independent contractor for obtaininginformation must be made "in connection" with an existing labor dispute.Thus, where anemployer in the railroad industry (within which a major dispute over work rules and so-called"featherbedding" exists between the companies and the unions) hires a detective agency to obtaininformation concerning the conduct of his employees and such information is obtained bysurveillance, it must be shown that the surveillance is reasonably connected with that disputebeforeareportisrequired.Alaterdisagreementbetweentheemployerandtheunionasto

whether the evidence developed by the surveillance justified disciplinary action against theparticular employees involved is not germane since the dispute was not one existing at the timeof the surveillance.