§ 453.21 Interests held in agents, brokers, and surety companies.

(a) Section 502(a) of the Act prohibits the placing of bonds required therein through any agent or broker or with any surety company in which any labor organization or any officer, agent, shop steward, or other representative of a labor organization has any direct or indirect interest. The purpose of this provision, as shown by its legislative history, is to insure against the existence of any “financial or other influential” interests which would affect the objectivity of the action of agents, brokers, or surety companies in bonding the personnel specified in the section.^[11] It appears, therefore, that it was the intent of Congress to prevent the placing of bonds through agents or brokers, and with surety companies, in which any labor organization or any officer, agent, shop steward, or other representative of a labor organization holds more than a nominal interest.

(b) Since the statute provides that either a direct or indirect interest by a labor organization or by the specified persons may disqualify an agent, broker, or surety company from having a bond placed through or with it, the disqualification would be effective if a labor organization or any of the specified persons are in a position to influence or control the activities or operations of such brokers, agents, or surety companies, by virtue of interests held either directly by them or by relatives or third parties which they own or control. The question of whether the relationship between the labor organization or the specified persons on the one hand, and another party or parties holding an interest in a broker, agent, or surety company on the other hand, is so close as to put the former in a position to influence or control the activities or operations of such broker, agent, or surety company through the latter, presents a question of fact which must necessarily be determined in each case in the light of all the pertinent circumstances.

(c) It is also to be noted that the statute does not appear to restrict the disqualification to cases in which a direct or indirect interest is held by a labor organization as a whole, or by a substantial number of officers, agents, shop stewards, or other representatives of a labor organization, but provides for the disqualification also in cases where any one officer, agent, shop steward, or other representative of a labor organization holds such an interest.

[28 FR 14394, Dec. 27, 1963, as amended at 63 FR 33780, June 19, 1998]