Access to Employee Files
BelleF
12 Posts
I am fairly new to this position and have had no formal HR training. Please HELP. Who can have access to an employee's file? I know that there are sections that are confidential and some that are not. Does the employee have access to the whole file or can the employer say no to certain areas of documents? Also this is a municipality and our Councilmen would like to have free access to the files. I don't think they should have any greater access than anyone else. Who is right?
Comments
You are correct to limit who has access to employee personnel files. The employee themselves must be granted access to the entire file upon request. Usually you can schedule this for a convenient time/place. Each state has guidelines on how long you have to grant access, i.e. 24 hours, 3 days, 7 days, etc.
As for others, each person requesting a file should be given only what directly relates to their job. So if they have supervisor responsiblity they should be able to see all performance reviews, attendance records, disciplinary notices, etc., but not benefits info, FML or leave of absence info, garnishment, etc. Those who conduct training may need to pull training records, but again, should not be given the entire file.
My employee files actually have 4 folders: General Employment/Performance, Benefits, Training/Development, Safety. That way I can pull only what is needed.
Not only does it matter what state you are in, but there also could be some different laws/rules since you are a public employer (vs private).
In any case, many times personnel files are broken into different types such as (1) payroll records (2) benefits/medical records (3) performance/salary records (4) etc. Different sets of people would be allowed to see different types of files. For example, you generally do not want payroll personnel seeing #2 or #3, but only information that impacts them -- w-4, direct deposit authorizations, etc.
You should certainly research the legalities of access to personnel files for your state. The guidelines that I use are fairly simple: Does the person have a legitimate "need to know" and specifically what information is needed for what purpose.
Once that determination is made, you will still have to reply to your councilmen's request.
I would review the following issues:
1. What information is needed and what business issue will be addressed by reviewing these records?
2. Is there another way to satisfactorily address this business issue other than giving the councilmen access to employee personnel files?
3. If their concerns involve performance or discipline documentation, is possible to obtain the information first-hand from the supervisors?
4. I would make sure that the information reviewed is not outdated data. For example, discipline that has been given over 5 years ago, loses its significance if the employee's record has been clean up to the present time.
5. Don't forget there are often supervisor records containing additional documentation of employee performance or non-compliance. Be sure that there is no documentation that could cause legal problems.
6. I recommend to supervisors that there should be no "surprises" in the personnel file. The employee should been given a copy of the document or know about the contents of any documents placed in the file.
[quote user="HRforME"] Not only does it matter what state you are in, but there also could be some different laws/rules since you are a public employer (vs private). [/quote]
There are definitely some different rules and laws.
For starters, if the employees are unionized, as many public employees are, then you need to know what's in the CBA. There will also be administrative work rules from the state, some of which will apply to each county and municipality.
I do not have enough public employer experience to say with any authority what the relationship is between councilmen and public employees. Is a councelperson's relationship to a public employee serving their constituency the same as the relationship between Joe, the owner of Joe's gas station, and Billy, the kid who sits behind the counter at Joes and talks on his cell phone when you try to pay for your gas? Someone here will know.
Thank you for all your responses. I can learn from all of you. We are in the state of South Dakota. I do separate the employee files into a General file, a Confidential/Evaluations file, a Health/Insurance file, a Drug Testing file, and a file for Certifications. Our employees are not unionized. Thank Goodness.
I have a document that lists the parameters for employee access to records for all states. According to this list the only thing it says is state employees may inspect their own performance appraisals (SD Code 3-6A-31). It does not say anything else. I would try to find that code and see how it reads.