'EE won't give us street address

Caroliso

Is there any legal or practical reason why I should insist an employee give HR his street address? He has given us a P.O. Box where he receives mail. He lives in the greater Boston area, so lack of street isn't an issue.

When he was hired he gave us a street address, but he has apparently moved and gave a P.O. Box as a new address. If I had to guess I would say that confidentiality in HR is not the issue, although I will add that he and his boss have a love/hate relationship, and he might not be clear about the circumstances under which we'd release his address to her (we do not -- we handle all communications directly). But I don't want to insist just for the sake of insisting. He's resisted initial efforts on the part of my assistant to obtain a street address.

mrbill

My experiences with this arrangement have lead me to accept this as a valid address. I would add, that we ask our employees for emergency notification information (who to contact in event of an accident). If the individual refuses to respond, then I do not push the issue, but I make sure that they understand that there is no way for the Company to notify them, in the event we receive urgent information concerning them. It is their loss.

System

We ask our employees to complete and sign a simple "address verification" form when they are hired and any time they change addresses. It is very simple and states that the address the employee has provided is the address at which he/she
will receive paychecks, company correspondence, etc. If it's a PO box, no problem, as long as we can send their checks, W-2s, and other info to them. I wouldn't force the issue.

Don D

The only leg you might have to stand on, I guess, is if your business is one that might require incumbents be legal residents of your State, and in that event, you could require that they verify an established residence address. But there might not be any situations out there like that. (Speaking of old applications and their questions; one I'm familiar with used to say; "Give directions to your home." Talk about an invasive question! That was a State of Mississippi Personnel Board Application.

Caroliso

Thanks, all. The only reason I could think of was that our our insurers require censuses (is that the right plural?) identifying zip code or state when we go out to bid. In this case presumably his zip code for both post office and for street are the same (we believe them to be) so there wouldn't be a problem. Otherwise we mail COBRA notices and other correspondence to the address of record, and we don't care if it's a street address or a p.o. box as long as it's where they receive their mail.

Carol