Under California law, employees must be allowed to view any personnel record that relates to an employee complaint or grievance, or that relate to their job performance. Employers are required to permit employees:
- To access personnel files at the place where the employee reports to work, or
- To inspect the records at the location where they are stored (with no loss of pay for the employee).
Employment records are an employer’s best—and sometimes only—defense against employee lawsuits. Find out what records you must keep, what you should keep, and when you order the CD recording from our recent audio conference: HR Recordkeeping in California: Paper and Electronic Personnel Files; What To Store and What To Dump. Can’t make it tomorrow? Order the CD and listen at your convenience.
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Access must be granted “within a reasonable period of time” after the employee has made a request. The law doesn’t define what a reasonable period of time is, but 48 hours is a good rule of thumb.
Employers are not required to allow employees to view records relating to the investigation of a possible criminal offense, letters of reference, reports, or records that (a) were obtained prior to the employee’s employment, (b) were prepared by identifiable examination committee members, or (c) were obtained in connection with a promotional exam.
In addition, both current and former employees must be allowed to inspect and copy their payroll records. Access to payroll records must be given within 21-days of an employee’s written or verbal request, and failure to provide access within that time will result in an automatic $750 fine against the employer.
Both job applicants and employees must also be provided, upon request, a copy of any document that the applicant or employee signs.
Are Your Recordkeeping Practices Putting Your Company at Risk?
Document, document, document. That’s the # 1 piece of advice many HR directors swear by to ensure compliance with workplace policies and shield their organizations from lawsuits.
In everyday practice, however, that rule generates paper—lots of it. From applications and wage and hour records to benefits paperwork and progressive discipline paper trails, the average HR office is bursting with thousands—even millions—of pieces of paper. Electronic recordkeeping has only made matters worse, as employers try to decipher the rules for filing and protecting e-records while figuring out what to do with the hard copies.
And, if you shred, delete, or lose the wrong file at the wrong time, you could find yourself in major legal trouble.
Order the CD recording from our recent audio conference, where our expert (an experienced California employment attorney who regularly advises clients on these issues) will explain the legal dos and dont’s of collecting, storing, and disposing of paper and electronic HR files.
- The records you must collect and maintain throughout each worker’s employment history—and how long you need to hang onto them
- How to handle sensitive HR information—such as medical records or immigration forms—that may require special handling
- The legal pros and cons of storing HR documents electronically (and the best methods for keeping these files safe and secure)
- Which records you must be prepared to produce if you’re hit with claims from disgruntled or terminated workers, from bias complaints to harassment lawsuits and beyond
- Your obligations when employees, supervisors, attorneys, or government officials ask to see your HR files
- How to train your supervisors to document correctly (and which notes or records they should be allowed to keep in their own files)
- Best practices for reviewing and culling your HR files, including a timetable for how long you should retain common types of HR documents
- How to determine when it’s safe to scan a document and trash the paper original
- The safest ways to get rid of paper and electronic HR records that you no longer need (and the questions to ask yourself before you shred or delete those records)